


The peculiar case of Tadashi Yamaguchi

by CharlyLee



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: (honestly they are just being dorks half the time), Adult Jokes, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Arch Angel!Kiyoko, Bites and Cuts, Blood and Injury, BoKuro sharing half a braincell (and Kuro is hogging it), Car Accidents, Deity!Ushijima, Explicit Language, Fire Pixie!Kuro, Gen, Half-Dragon!Iwaizumi, Half-Ghost!Suga, Hybrid!Daichi, Hybrid!Matsukawa, Kenma doesn't give a fuck about anything, Little Shit Lev, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Selkie!Kenma, ShapeShifter!Bokuto, Shapeshifter!Lev, Tengu!Hinata, They are all trying to help Yamaguchi figure out what kind of species he is, Unknown Species!Yamaguchi, Vampire!Tsukishima, Vila/Siren!Oikawa, Werewolf!Tendou, Wind Spirit!Hanamaki, Witch!Akaashi, Witchling!Kageyama, Yamaguchi just wants a break, akaashi is tired, chaos ensured, kagehina being dumb, tsukki is dense, witch!yachi, witch!yaku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:49:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 41,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28391178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharlyLee/pseuds/CharlyLee
Summary: Tadashi Yamaguchi has problems. As in: A lot.People can't stop reminding him that he smells tasty and they'd like to eat him.His best friend and he are indirectly responsible for burning down their previous university.He can't figure out how to stop turning orange whenever he's nervous, keeps hitting his antlers on the lintel and the lion's tail growing out his back seems to have developed a mind of its own.Oh, and of course there is that cute but grouchy med student vampire living across the hall who he is crushing on hard but doesn't have the courage to ask out!On top of everything he now has to transfer to a new uni and try to survive campus chaos.Luckily, a fire pixie with chronic bed-hair and a shapeshifter who transforms into a duck instead of an owl whenever he's upset, decide to take him on and teach Tadashi some confidence.Inbetween mysterious sirens, headless centaurs, annoyed dragons, hungry werewolves, kickboxing archangels, literal gods and sassy half-ghosts he isn't quite sure if they are actually helping his increasing anxiety attacks, but hey... it's the effort that counts, isn't it?
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Bokuto Koutarou & Kuroo Tetsurou, Hinata Shouyou & Yamaguchi Tadashi, Implied LevYaku - Relationship, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou, Kuroo Tetsurou & Yaku Morisuke, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Semi Eita/Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi, Tsukishima Kei/Yamaguchi Tadashi, Yamaguchi Tadashi & Everyone, implied KageHina - Relationship, implied MatsuHana - Relationship
Comments: 8
Kudos: 85
Collections: Haikyuu!! Urban Fantasy Bang





	1. The Witch, The Centaur and The Duck

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my native language and while I try to check everything to the best of my abilities, there most certainly are a few mistakes that slipped me. Feel free to point them out in the comments, I am happy to know where I can improve!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If he'd ever had to print cards, they would probably read: 'Architecture Student and professional mess Tadashi Yamaguchi - easily startled (please never contact)'.  
> But Tadashi is also not keen on living behind a dumpster and so he has to swallow a bitter pill and start life at a new university alongside his best friend. How quickly will he get lost? And how fast can Hinata get them into trouble?

“Yes” - _“Yes”_ \- _“Ma,_ I promise it’s fine” - “I know, _I know…”_ \- “I’ll take care of myself, I’m not a child anymore!” - “Yes” - “Yes” - _“Yes,_ Ma!” - “I have to go now, I’m home” - “Love you and Mom too”

Tadashi sighs as he tries to cringe his body in a way he can get a hold of the phone jammed between his shoulder and his cheek, as both of his arms are occupied with a large bag of groceries and a six-pack of his favourite energy drink. How did he even get it to his ear in the first place? Urgh... for a long moment, he stares at his arms, brain trying to determine what would be the best way to place his purchases on the floor without risking to knock the bag over, so he can put down his phone and get out his keys.

 _‘Energy drinks first, then bag, then phone,'_ he decides, biting on his lower lip as he starts squatting in the hallway, begging none of his neighbours will show up and see him like this!

He manoeuvres the six-pack to the ground successfully, lets out a relieved huff and sways. For a shocking moment, he can see his purchases litter across the floor and his phone shatter on the same, then he dips forward with a little yelp, the device slips from the feeble grip of his shoulder and chin and with a soft thud it lands right inside the paper bag, which he manages to safe with a quick grab. Merely a single apple, balancing on the very top of the groceries goes astray.

 _“Oof,"_ he breathes out, turns around to collect the fruit and - _“Aaah!”_ \- screams in surprise, recoiling from the sudden presence right behind him, almost stumbling over the shopping bag, nearly knocking it over a second time. _‘Vampire!’_

Clear, golden eyes stare down at him from behind square glasses and a pale hand offers out his apple. “You dropped this," his neighbour informs him.

 _“T...thank you,_ Tsukishima-San," he stutters, hastily scrambling up to his feet, taking the food back.

The vampire just blinks at him once, then twice, slightly crooking his head, bright eyes scanning Tadashi up and down, pale nose twitching.

 _‘He’s checking if I’m injured!’_ Tadashi realizes and a self-conscious heat rises to his cheek.

As an explanation one should know that over the centuries non-humans have mixed with each other and with humans to a degree almost every person on earth has some parts of mythical or magical DNA in them nowadays and the list of weird hybrids is longer than the Oxford dictionary. And still, despite countless doctors appointments and BuzzFeed quizzes, Tadashi doesn’t know what exactly he is. The weird combination of lion’s tail, roe deer antlers and randomly colour-changing skin isn’t exactly common. He doesn’t _need_ to know, though, for people around him to constantly remind him, they don’t care as long they can take a bite out of him because apparently he is extremely rich in energy and smells incredibly tasty. Paired with his high regeneration rate and weak will, that has gotten him into more than one messy situation. In his defence, he is quite good at running from predators by now, but on the occasion, someone still manages to catch him and in this world, it is _‘fight or be eaten’_ \- needless to say, Tadashi is not very good at the fighting part.

Over the years his standards have dropped pathetically low. Even if someone bleeds him half dead, as long as he can drop into his bed and sleep it off, it is not much more than a minor inconvenience in the sense that his clothes are probably ruined because blood is a hassle to wash out!

Nine months ago he moved to the city to study architecture at Western University and a shy, tasty, clumsy boy with no sense of orientation in a new city was - well, it was ‘ _a snack on legs’_ as the kitsune who got him that night so kindly phrased it before Tadashi managed to whack a soda can over her nose and run. He had strumbled home, bleeding from a bite wound in his biceps, ready to cry over his patheticness for a bit on his sofa when suddenly an annoyed vampire with a first-aid kit had hammered against his door, invited himself in and insisted on stitching him, despite Tadashi’s reassurance that the wound would heal on its own before the sun was up. But Tsukishima said he didn’t like the smell of blood everywhere because it would keep him awake. And ever since, Tadashi’s useless, irrational, disaster bi brain has been crushing on his neighbour hard! It has become some kind of morbid and yet oddly reassuring ritual that every time he comes home injured, the blond is waiting for him with a needle, thread and gauze.

Only that today he actually managed to go shopping without getting mauled, which is a minor miracle in itself.

“I… _umn…_ I’m fine today, thank you for checking," he smiles shily, making an awkward gesture.

Tsukishima wrinkles his nose and narrows his eyes as if to dare him to lie to his face, then he shrugs and turns around, about to vanish into his own apartment.

 _“Wait!”_ Tadashi finds himself pulling and massaging his knuckles nervously. “You _umn…_ you study medicine at Central Uni, right?” he asks. They’ve had a few conversations, but none longer than a dozen sentences, no matter how badly Tadashi tries to stretch them far enough until he has the courage to ask if the other would like a coffee or a snack or a ring or something vaguely like that. But every time he gets confident Tsukishima looks him dead in the eye and tells him to shut up.

He is met with silence so he hastily goes on: “I _umn…_ I’m transferring there tomorrow since my uni… well umn, _burned down_ and I was wondering if maybe you could, _erm_ show me around or something, I mean, I don’t want to bother you or anything, I just thought that perhaps it’d be nice to _umn…_ walk together… _a bit,"_ the last part is a barely audible murmur, his voice failing under the intense golden stare.

Tsukishima looks at him for another moment, then he turns around and closes the door of his flat behind him without another word.

Tadashi too turns to face his door, but instead of cramming his keys into the lock he just leans his head against it with a quiet groan, the tips of his tiny roe-deer antlers tocking against the wood.

“I’m such an _idiot!"_ he scolds himself, gently bumping his forehead again and again. _“Such_ an idiot!”

 _“Umn…_ Yamaguchi-Kun? Are you… _are you okay?"_ a gentle voice asks.

He lifts his head only to find another neighbour, two apartments down, at the end of the hallway, peaking outside, brows furrowed in concern. 

“No," he admits weakly.

Hitoka Yachi may be one of four people on this planet he can be honest with, the other being his mothers and a good friend from uni and even those three have a big question mark at times. But Yachi is his safe haven because they are both equally nervous messes and the only thing they ever compete in is who can knock over the most glasses and stumble over more chairs.

“Do... do you want to come over? I have a new tea that I just made today!" she offers and he nods.

“That would be awesome - I’ll just get my stuff inside and change, okay?”

She smiles and nods, then she pulls her head back inside and Tadashi opens his own door, shoving the six-pack over the threshold with his foot.

 ~~ ...  ~~ ~~ ~~

“So, tomorrow is the big day, _isn’t it?"_ Yachi asks and Tadashi takes a sip of tea.

There is nothing better than a witch’s homemade tea, even if the blonde’s speciality is time-based magic and not herbology.

 _“Yeah,"_ he nods and shudders.

“You got this!" she reassures him, but her own hands clench nervously around her cup as she goes on, “I mean Central is a big uni with lots of people - you can blend into the herd and nobody will notice you, that’s good, isn’t it? It _has_ to be good!”

“I hope you are right," Tadashi sighs, “I still wish I could have joined your uni” - _‘If only it wasn’t a damn expensive, super fancy, private one!’_

The two of them met about a year ago, in the bathroom of another uni out of town. Both of them had been invited to an application interview and both of them had been so nervous they needed to throw up. Eventually, they bonded over rinsing their mouths at the uni-sex sinks. When Tadashi was in need of a place to live, Yachi volunteered to vouch for him with her landlord who owned several flats in this building, the one he is living in now included and since it’s one of the smallest it’s surprisingly affordable.

It’s not like his family is poor, they get by quite well, but Tadashi doesn’t want to be a financial burden on his mothers any more than he already is, since his tendency to attract trouble in combination with his non-existent self-confidence has gotten him either denied or fired from every job he’s had so far.

“Me too - then I wouldn’t be so alone in my design classes anymore," she frowns into her cup. “But doesn’t Tsukishima-San goes to Central as well? Maybe you could stick to him and - _oh”_

From the look on his face, she must have deducted that plan already went down the drain - _rather spectacularly_ if he might say so. Yachi is well aware of Tadashi’s crush on the blond vampire. He appreciates her attempts to help and her encouragements every time he gets flat out ignored in his attempts to organise something that could count as a date if you just squint hard enough!

“It’ll be okay," he looks up and does his best to conjure a smile, if only so that she stops frowning! “I have a friend from my old uni, who has also been assigned to Central and he has a friend who studies engineering there, so maybe _he_ can give us a tour.”

 _“Oh,_ that sounds good - _yeah,_ good, _good,"_ Yachi nods determinedly and they both take a sip of tea with smiles curling around their lips.

Then his phone rings and he checks the display. _‘Well, if your speaking of the devil - or, in this case, the tengu!’_

“Hey, Hinata," he answers, mouthing: _“That’s the friend,"_ at Yachi, who sits more upright and gives him a thumbs-up as if he was having an interview or something.

 _ >Hey, Yamaguchi<, _ the tengu on the other side of the line chirps, _ >Good news, Kageyama will show us around and - I NEVER SAID THAT!<, _ a second voice yells in the background, so loud that Tadashi has to take the phone away from his ear and even Yachi can hear it. _ >Don’t be such a cranky-pants, Bakageyama! - That isn’t even a word, you idiot! - Stop yelling or Ennoshita will get mad, you turd! - I’ll show you a turd, you turd! - You can’t use turd, I already used turd, you turd! - Then you’re an extra turd! - That’s still a turd, think of something yourself, cabbage head! - Hey, if you have turd and cabbage head that’s unfair!< _

Tadashi looks up at his friend, slightly confused. “I think he’s forgotten I’m still on the line.”

 _“What kind of friend is that?"_ Yachi whispers slightly horrified.

“I don’t know," Tadashi admits, looking back down at the phone, still broadcasting the hailstorm of insults. “I think they live in the same flatshare with some older students.”

 _“Oh,"_ she nods solemnly.

_ >Boke! - Stupid!< _

They look back down at the phone.

 _“Yeah_ \- he’s forgotten me… _he’ll call again when he remembers,"_ Tadashi decides and hangs up, then he buries his face in his hands and Yachi awkwardly pats his hand, because her short arms can’t reach all the way to his shoulder from across the table.

“I mean I already had the official tour last week," he mumbles, more to himself. _‘And I have already forgotten nearly everything!’_

“You can do this!" Yachi nods and pours him some more tea. 

_‘I can do this!’_ Tadashi takes a deep breath and drinks with a thankful smile. Nothing better to soothe the nerves than a witch’s tea!

**~~///~~ **

For a moment, he stands in the hallway, clutching the strap of his messenger bag, and contemplates to take the three additional steps, raise his hand and knock at Tsukishima’s door. _Maybe they could walk together after all?_ Then again, maybe the vampire has a different schedule than his, maybe he’ll wake him and then he will be mad at Tadashi and never talk to him ever again, leaving him do die alone, lonely and a virgin and -

He slaps his cheeks and shakes his head until they totter. 

_‘Focus, Tadashi! You don’t know his walking speed and you have a rendezvous with Hinata!’_ he disciplines himself, expertly ignoring the fact that in the whole year they have known each other, the tengu has not been on time _once,_ and hushes down the hallway.

On the way, he makes sure that his tail is tucked safely around his belly and concealed by his sweater. It’s not like he’s ashamed or anything, but people tend to get interested when they notice the unusual combination of lion and deer, asking questions and smelling his tasty energy which usually results in his useless, anxiety brain having an overload and a nervous panic attack.

When he was fourteen, he once tried to sew off his antlers, because he thought that people would be less tempted to mess with him if they only saw the lion bit and not the deer parts of his body. After all, lions were predators whereas deers were snacks. Long story short, it had been a disastrous endeavour, which ended in him passing out after breaking off one antler more than orderly cutting it and having to walk around with a single, shameful antler for almost a month until the other grew back. And if it wasn’t the absolute humiliation, then at the very least the constant neck cramps that convinced him it was much more convenient to just cover the tail with a baggy pullover.

One of the major benefits of transferring turns out to be that his new uni is in walking distance from his apartment. There is a bus connection for rainy days, but today the air is mild and Tadashi prefers to avoid confined spaces full of strangers. 

He likes walking at the fresh air and watching the sun paint the skyscrapers golden, one storey after the other.

Out of all the city’s universities, Central has by far the largest campus, stretching over three blocks. There is the main complex with all the community buildings and most of the faculty buildings, then comes the sports and sciences campus together with the athletics centre and gym and at the far end medical, sharing their block with the downtown hospital.

Tadashi ends up at one of the gateways that lead onto the sports complex, his eyes drifting over the lawns and buildings. A group seems to do some Yoga at the far end of the grass and two satyrs are throwing a football between each other, sprinting over the green with outstanding speed and agility. Other than that a few pairs and single students have settled, enjoying the last half hour before classes start and some of them have hunched over forgotten assignments.

Tadashi checks his watch. He is three minutes early, with means he has another fifteen save before Hinata shows up. Awkwardly he steps from one foot onto the other. He looks _weird,_ doesn’t he? Just… _standing around_ all on his own. 

Two medusae stride down the walkway and Tadashi tries to lean against the wall next to the gate as casually as possible. One of them is dressed in a batik maxidress, wearing her thick, golden snakes open and free, while the other has tucked them under a headscarf, though one of the slim, red and white heads seems to be in a rebellious mood today, winding its way out into the open.

Right as they pass Tadashi it turns its slitted eyes at him and hisses, presenting long fangs. He flinches back and unless his senses betray him, the girl rolls her eyes, scoffing: _“Men!"_ as she walks on, her friend snickering into her hand, shooting him a lofty side-glance, her own snakes imitating and multiplying the expression by at least two dozen.

Tadashi can feel heat rise into his ears and he is quick to turn his eyes down onto the pavement in shame. Hastily he studies the campus map on his phone, but _no,_ he is certain he’s in the right place and so he can’t even run off and try anew at a different entrance.

“See, he’s already waiting! I _told_ you he’d be on time, Bakageyama!”

Tadashi’s head snaps up. He _knows_ that voice!

And sure thing, there he is - Hinata Shoyo, design student, tengu, 164 centimetres of compressed confidence and energy and for some reason Tadashi’s best friend.

 _“Hey,_ did you wait long? _You did,_ didn’t you!? I set up _sixteen_ alarms this morning to be extra punctual for you but Bakageyama _still_ overslept, can you believe that? Also, Ennoshita got real mad for some reason and we lost eleven whole minutes because he yelled at us. I don’t even know why he was awake already, he was still working on his paper when I went to the toilet at like five in the morning!" the ball of black feathers and wild orange curls informs him in an aggravated chirping voice, that somehow reminds Tadashi of a wet canary.

He contemplates trying to explain that perhaps their flatmate was not a fan of the _sixteen_ alarms going off, especially if he was up past five, but he decides against it and just grins: _“Don’t worry,_ I didn’t wait that long!”

A quick check of his phone tells him it really only was eleven minutes.

 _“Hah!"_ his friend’s companion snaps triumphantly.

Tadashi spares him a nervous glance, fidgeting with the strap of his bag. “Hi, _umn…_ I’m Ta...Tadashi Yamaguchi, nice to meet you, _umn_ and _err…_ thank you for showing us around.” He bows his head.

The other has flat, dark hair, blue eyes and his lips seem to be perpetually frowning. He looks Tadashi up and down and grunts.

 _“Kageyama!"_ Hinata gnashes between gritted teeth and steps down on the other’s foot. “Don’t be so constipated! You promised to be nice to my friend.”

The dark-haired winces, as does Tadashi. He has first-hand experience with the phenomenal strength of Hinata’s clawed bird-feet.

The other pulls a grimace, that does indeed look a lot like he’s in need of a bathroom, furiously glaring at a spot above Tadashi’s shoulder, until eventually, after a few very long, very silent seconds, he mumbles: “Kageyama Tobio," and, encouraged by polished claws digging into his sneaker, tacks on: _“Nice to mee you too.”_

Hinata releases his hold and grins from one ear to the other as if nothing had happened.

 _“Awesome,_ let’s go!" he calls out, grabbing both Tadashi’s and Kageyama’s sleeves and starts pulling them along with him onto the campus. Tadashi stumbles a little, but fortunately, Hinata lets go of them only a few steps later, so he can start his usual enthusiastic blabbering, describing the cornflakes he had for breakfast in much greater detail than the human language should allow.

Tadashi sometimes wonders what would have happened to him, if he had not taken a heart to the lost-looking tengu on their first-ever day of uni. It wasn’t like he actively intended to befriend the orange-haired, but apparently for the tengu, being allowed to tag along and sit next to someone at the greeting ceremony, was enough reason to declare them _bestest of best friends_ for life.

And Tadashi didn’t have the heart to tell Hinata to leave - in retrospect he is unbelievably glad he didn’t! Because yes, the tengu is _a lot_ to handle, but he also has a very fine sense for what kind of interaction Tadashi needs and so he has never once felt overwhelmed by the other’s presence. Being with Hinata is its own kind of liberating and when they ended up in the same transfer group, Tadashi had felt something like hope.

After all, even if you are scared of almost everything, the world and a new uni both seem a lot less scary when you have a friend at your side.

“And I was like _‘guaaaaah’,_ cause you know, it was just _sooooo_ cool and then I -”

Hinata is flapping his hands around wildly and with his flight feathers having retracted inside his body, only a sort of soft, opalescent down is covering his bare arms. Tadashi is sure he’s never seen him wear a jacket. The feathers keep him warm and any form of restriction to his wings would most likely drive the energetic tengu insane.

Just like Tadashi, Kageyama is only half paying attention to the monologue and directs the tengu onto the right pathways trough light pushes. 

“... so I said _‘You’re such a dunce’_ and Tora laughed and then Bakageyama went all red and made his coffee explode in his hand too and-”

 _“Hey!"_ now the dark-haired interrupts his flatmate and his ears flame up bright red. “Quit telling that to everyone, _it only happened once!”_

Tadashi has a vague memory of Hinata telling him he is living with a witchling, someone with magic potential, but no attribution like a full witch, which leads to their magic being very headstrong and unstable. Back then he had not given a name, but now the mystery is solved.

“But it was _funny!"_ Hinata objects, then he looks around, “Wait, _where are we?”_

To be honest, Tadashi would like to know that too.

They are heading for a pedestrian bridge, spanning over a broad street, connecting the athletics block and the main campus.

“You need to go to administration, _don’t you!?"_ Kageyama snaps.

 _“Woaaaaah,_ yeah, I totally forgot - _thanks,_ Kageyama!" Hinata’s eyes brighten up even more and he beams in appreciation.

The dark-haired turns his face away with a scoff, but Tadashi is certain he spots a faint, suspicious shade of pink trickle into his cheeks as he mutters: “Shut up, _you’re stupid!”_

They cross the bridge and the air around them changes immediately. The main block is much busier, with students walking the paths, some holding a fresh coffee from the on-campus bakery, others chatting or looking into their phones.

Kageyama leads them past a building, which he curtly labels with: “Books," which Tadashi interprets as _‘library’_ before they cross a medium-sized lawn and walk around another one where he makes a loose gesture and scoffs: “Food," probably meaning _‘canteen’,_ then he comes to a stop and points at an unspectacular white building with a flat buttress and an intensely green door, half-yawning: “And admin - see you later.”

He’s gone before either of them can stop him and they exchange a look, Hinata pursing his lips in displease and Tadashi is quick to bump their elbows with a grin. He _really_ can’t have an angry tengu run after his friend and demand a proper farewell.

“Come on - we should be just on time!" he prompts his friend.

Administration reminds Tadashi more of a luxury hotel than a school. They enter through the broad double doors and find themselves in a wide atrium with a grand front desk, prominently featuring the Central University emblem in the middle.

A lamia sits behind the desk, typing at her computer, but she looks up as they near and throws them a smile, filled with _way_ too many, _way_ too pointy teeth, her scaled cheeks reflecting the light of the large droplight above the front desk. Tadashi’s last run-in with a lamia ended, as most of his run-ins with no matter who do, with a bite wound in his calve and so he has absolutely no objections to Hinata taking the lead.

The tengu stretches to his toe tips and waves at the woman. _“Hello,_ we are new!" he informs her.

She chuckles and now Tadashi can catch a glance at the name tag identifying her as _‘Ono Minaho, chief secretary’._

“And your names?" she asks.

 _“Hinata Shoyo_ and _Yamaguchi Tadashi.”_

 _“Ah,_ I see," she nods, looking at her screen, then she turns around and pulls two clipboards and loose-leaf binders with uni logo from a drawer. _“Welcome,_ first of all! You will be meeting with the heads of your faculties soon, but I need you to fill out some final paperwork. Please give this a quick read, sign the pages that are marked with post-it’s and double-check that all the listed documents and items are in your folder, please!" and she slides all of it over the countertop.

Tadashi spots his name on the first sheet of the left clipboard and takes that bundle with a gulp.

Ms Ono points them to a group of lounge chairs in the far corner of the atrium, with a flat table in between them and they move to sit there.

Tadashi begins to unpack his folder, grinning at Hinata, who follows his example and comments on every document with a variation of astonished and excited noises. He admires the tengu for being able to turn even banalities such as _‘checking personal data on student ID’_ into an adventure, by holding the white plastic card up into the air like a video game character that has just uncovered an epic item from a treasure chest and exclaiming: _“Oahhhhhhhhh!”_

He moves to check his own ID and after confirming that this is his actual birthday and his name is indeed spelt correctly, he scribbles a signature onto the paper that states he has orderly received his card and is fully aware of its importance as well as the consequences of a loss.

Checking his data and reading the house rules takes almost an hour, prolonged by Hinata having to look up various legal terms and fidgeting with his pencil so furiously he breaks it in half and has to do a walk of shame to the front desk to ask for a new one.

But eventually, all technicalities are served justice, they hand back the papers and Ms Ono makes two very quick phone calls.

A mere minute later an old man stomps into the reception, hands deep in his pockets, his wrinkled face giving him a grumpy look, but his eyes sparkle with youth and intelligence. Tadashi notices colour stains on his sleeves and shoes.

He looks at Ms Ono and points his thumb over his shoulder grunting out: “The nervous mess or the shrimp?”

 _“Ukai-Sama,"_ she scolds with a click of her tongue, but her lips still quirk in light amusement, as she waves at them. “Hinata-Kun please.”

 _“Good luck!"_ Tadashi mumbles, trying to suppress the heat rising into his ears and the orange splotches starting to appear on the palms of his hands at the thought of suddenly being all on his own.

“I’ll text you for lunch, _‘kay?"_ Hinata chirps.

“Sure," Tadashi nods and watches the tengu hop over to his faculty leader, black feathers ruffled in eager determination. They disappear the same way the old man arrived and suddenly the entrance hall feels cold, bleak and lonely.

He shoots Ms Ono a nervous glance and she gives him something that could be an encouraging smile if it only wasn’t for all those damn _teeth!_

He finds himself looking at his ID to pass the time. His mom picked the picture for him. It’s one where he only looks about 70% overstrained and is not horrible. A small smile quirks on his lips. He should call his mothers later to let them know everything went well.

 _“Yamaguchi Tadashi?"_ someone talks at him from the side and he almost drops his ID, catching it between his left middle and index finger after a moment of breathless fumbling.

“Y...Yes!" he straightens up.

The satyr facing him looks around 50, has short, dark hair and eyes the colour of dry earth. He smells of earth too and it is somewhat calming. “I am Professor Irihata Nobuteru, your head of faculty," he smiles at Tadashi, who bows deeply. “Let us go to my office!”

He follows his supervisor through what seems to be the entirety of the administration building because the office they enter has wide windows facing some cherry trees that Tadashi didn’t see before, therefor assuming they are planted behind the property.

Irihata gestures him to take a seat… _on a large, neon green fitness ball._

“Please excuse the absence of chairs, they do not reconcile with my physique," the satyr explains at Tadashi’s perplexed expression and falls down on another ball on the other side of the desk, this one offensively pink.

He bounces up and down a few times, before settling and Tadashi sits down carefully. This is _weird!_

“Let me welcome you in the name of the architecture faculty! We are very happy to have such a talented student to join us. I took the liberty of evaluating some of your sketches and you have a very steady hand, _my compliments!"_ Irihata smiles and opens another folder.

“Oh, _umn…_ thank you!" Tadashi bows again, swaying dangerously on the ball and quickly having to grab the edge of the desk to prevent himself from falling over. Talented…him… _yeah right..._

They exchange a few more verbalities. Irihata asks him about his studies and projects at his previous uni, about his grades and interests and eventually hands him a time table. “I wasn’t sure if you already have access to your network account, so I made sure and printed this out for you!”

Tadashi studies the different slots. He has indeed received his log in dates earlier and receipted them with one of many signatures, but he still has to activate his account. Though, if this is right, then he has already missed materials science and half of microeconomics, which is followed by a forty-five-minute break and a double session history of architecture.

_“Here.”_

He looks at the post-it note Irihata offers to him, takes it and reads the steep, narrow handwriting.

“All transfers are assigned a mentor from a higher semester to help them around campus. Unfortunately, yours is indisposed at this moment, however, you should be able to find him at this room during the break. It’s on the second floor of the big, blue building.," the satyr explains.

 _“Oh…,"_ Tadashi mumbles. _‘Oikawa Tooru’._ His mentor. This is the part of the movie where he either meets his love interest or his greatest bully. _Or both._ He shakes his head to clear it. No! He already has a love interest - _oh dear heavens, did he really just think that?_ Bad brain, _bad!_ Anyway, so it must be the bully…just _great,_ because apparently, Tadashi hasn’t had enough of those already. _Urgh…_

“Oikawa-San is one of our greatest prodigies, I think you can learn a lot from him," Irihata must have noticed the slightly sour turn to his face.

 _Oh…_ so a swotter? _What a relief._ He exhales his tension.

“Thank you! I’ll be sure to give my best," he nods and bows his head, slower and with more attention to his centre of gravity this time.

Irihata gets up and Tadashi follows. The man leads him back into the entrance hall where they shake hands and Tadashi is released into the wild of the campus life.

While he aimlessly strolls along the paths he texts Hinata but there is no response. The tengu is probably over all mountains with his own mentor already. So Tadashi checks the campus plan on his phone again and readjusts his bag.

In the distance, a bell announces lunch-break and Tadashi sets out to find his designated chaperone.

~~... ~~

Big, blue building, second floor, room D2-27. _‘Yep, this is the place!’_ Tadashi does a last quintuple check of the plate next to the door and the sticky note he has been handed, then he straightens his shoulders and takes a nervous look around. 

There are a couple of students in the hallway, but no one pays him any mind. He could still walk away… _no!_ No, he needs to get this done eventually and the longer he waits, the harder it will get! Tadashi clenches and relaxes his fingers several times, checks for a sixth time if this is really the right room and knocks.

No answer. Yeah, maybe he should just go, he doesn’t want to disturb anyone!

“Just go in, _mate,_ it’s lunch break, ain’t no lecture anywhere," an older student walks past him and Tadashi flinches hard.

 _Damn,_ now someone has seen him and if he just leaves he’ll be the awkward stalker. So, no other choice than to face his mentor.

Gingerly he pushes the handle down and opens the door just enough to catch a glance inside. He’s facing a medium-sized auditorium, about 10 rows of 5 or 6 tables each, gently descending towards a huge blackboard. High windows let in the autumn sun.

A couple of bags are laying around but there are only two people inside.

A strawberry-blond boy is sitting crosslegged on the teacher’s desk and Tadashi notices two things right away. He is barefoot and he isn’t sitting, rather levitating a couple of centimetres above the surface.

The other one is lounging halfway up the room, sitting at an odd angle, his head on the desk in front of him but somehow still facing straight ahead. Tadashi just barely resists the urge to massage his own neck - that must be _hella_ uncomfortable! And yet the dark-haired seems entirely relaxed.

Oh, and then, of course, there is the massive, pitch-black Frisian horse, casually laying around in front of the window, it’s back facing Tadashi, the long curly tail twitching when he enters.

“You’re a lifesaver, Kindaichi!" the strawberry-blond calls out with a cheery wave only to hold his action midway. “Hold on, _you’re not Kindaichi!"_ he narrows his eyebrows, “And you don’t seem to have my gummi bears either!”

“Ah _umn…_ no… _sorry,"_ Tadashi pulls in his head.

The other just shrugs, “Shame," then he grabs an almost empty bag of sweet treats and throws one of them in the air, catching it skilfully in his mouth.

“Makki! _Gimme one,"_ the one sitting on the benches prompts his friend, who grins and rubs his palms.

The strawberry-blond mimics the position of a basketball player about to shoot a three-pointer and moments later a green gummi bear soars through the auditorium. Tadashi watches in amazement and gasps in awe when the treat performs a couple of loopings and a soft breeze caresses his face. 

_‘He must be some kind of wind spirit!’_ he realizes as he watches how Makki directs the gummi bear in a wide curve around the room, makes it rise in a tight spiral, ending in another looping before dropping it down into his friend’s open mouth, only to miss and hit him in the eye instead.

 _“Ouch!"_ the dark-haired wines, “Where the hell are you aiming?”

 _“Sorry!"_ Makki snorts and levitates another gummi bear over, this time in a slow, orderly fashion, then he looks up at Tadashi, seemingly surprised he is still there. “You need anything?”

“Yeah, I… _erm…_ I was told this is where I could find umn…," he takes another look at the sticky note in his hand, “O...Oikawa Tooru!?”

The two exchange a long look.

“Just missed him!" the dark-haired sighs. In the corner of the room, the horse starts to move and - Tadashi backs up against the wall. It’s not a horse, but a centaur… a headless centaur… headless… his eyes dart to the single, loose head, with unruly curls in the same colour as the Friesian’s coat, positioned on the table and happily munching gummi bears. _The fuck!?_

The centaur body stretches before settling back down and continuing to warm its other flank in the sunlight streaming in through the high windows. The head hums contently.

“Why are you looking for him, anyway?" the strawberry-blond asks with interest, rising from the desk and floating over to the head.

“He…," Tadashi swallows, “He’s supposed to be my mentor, I umn… _I’m new.”_

The two others exchange another long look, then they both start to laugh their guts out in near hysteria. Makki twists onto his back, his bare feet wiggling in glee as he slaps his belly, dangerously bobbing up and down in the air, shaking with laughter. The horse body bends in a loud wheeze, furred torso rumbling with amusement and the head quakes from giggling so strongly, it falls over.

“You… _hahahahaha_ \- oh shit, _Matsun!"_ Makki dives down to pick up the head and place it back upright on the stump of the neck.

“Thanks," the head gasps, still struggling to keep the wheezing under control.

Tadashi feels like he walked into a trap.

“Maybe you can still catch up to him," Makki looks at him with a cheeky grin. “Just follow the trail of excess self-esteem and look for the crowd of squealing girls!”

“Or the annoyed dragon," Matsun adds with a shit-eating chuckle.

 _“Or the annoyed dragon,"_ Makki reaffirms with a nod only to turn his face away and stifle the next, loud snort at his shoulder.

 _“‘kay,"_ Tadashi gulps and licks his lips, silently promising himself he will absolutely _not_ do that! Dragons are above his paygrade and his last run-in with a half-dragon cost him a hand, which took two days and nights of fever and hellish agony to regrow. So nope… big, _fat_ nope! He’ll rather figure this university out by himself! Or maybe Hinata has had more luck than him and got a nice mentor, who might take Tadashi on too.

Slowly he backs out of the room, casting a last glance over his shoulder. Makki has resumed a floating position, tossing his friend’s head the last of his sweets. Both of them still wear deeply amused expressions.

 _‘What the hell did I just get myself into?’_ Tadashi asks himself with a shudder, _‘And what in all heavens names was that reaction?’_

Best not to think about it too much! He gives his watch a quick glance and nervously nibbles at his lower lip. There are about 20 minutes left of his lunch break - if he walks to his next lecture and eats his sandwich there, that should do just fine and maybe he can even secure a good seat.

With a plan to distract him from his tumbling thoughts he starts to walk away from the room, but an uneasy feeling stays, like tiny needles pricking his neck. _Oikawa Tooru…_

**~~///~~ **

Monday isn’t even if his longest day, and yet Tadashi feels absolutely beat as soon as he climbs the stairs to his apartment in the afternoon. _‘It must have been the excitement.’_

He presses down the lever of the door separating the hallway from the stairwell and immediately notices the man, holding a duck under his arm, knocking at Tsukishima’s door. He doesn’t even have half a second before his batshit useless, disaster bi brain begins to run amok.

The guy is, Tadashi would say, _medium_ attractive at best. _Sure,_ his hair is shiny and he is tall, but what even _is_ that haircut? Tsukki would never engage with someone who can’t use a hairbrush properly!

And what is up with the duck? Oh no - _is it food?_ Is that some kind of vampire courtship ritual? _The presenting of the duck?_ He desperately tries to dig in his brain for the remnant memories of having to endure special, species-specific sex ed sometime in middle school, but he can’t come up with anything other than the knowledge that dragons are semi-hermaphrodite and while they have genders, both males and females can lay eggs. That is interesting to remember but does not help with the duck-situation. _At all._

He approaches his door and the stranger casually, trying to stare discretely.

He has a messenger bag and seems only a little older than Tadashi and Tsukishima. _Shit…_ Tsukki seems like the kind of type who would prefer to be with someone roughly his own age.

“Come on man, _open up!"_ the stranger bangs at the vampire’s door again, pleading.

Did they have a fight? _Did they break up?_ A tiny spark of hope ignites in Tadashi’s chest and he takes his fair share of time to fumble out his keys. _Hold on_ \- that would imply they were together in the first place… what if the duck is really some kind of mating offer - compensation for improper behaviour!?

But Tsukki is strict and would not let himself be coaxed into picking a relationship back up, _would he?_

“Go away!" the vampire’s muffled voice sounds trough the door and Tadashi beams in quiet victory! “Ask Akaashi!" he tacks on. _Wait…_ that doesn’t make any sense! Unless… _a threesome?_ No…

Tadashi gasps a little too loud.

 _“You think I didn’t try?_ He’s busy, man!" the stranger calls out, throwing back his bangs and rolling his eyes.

Now Tadashi can spot the faint red spark in his them and the slitted pupils. He wouldn’t consider himself an expert in identifying spirits, since he’s never quite gotten the hang of memorizing all the tiny criteria, but he’s rather sure, that the odd-haired man is a fire-pixie.

Tsukki wouldn’t date a flame spirit, _would he?_ Fire and garlic are a vampire’s natural enemies! Then again, times change and vampires are cold - maybe Tsukki just wants someone to compensate for his own lack of body heat.

Carefully Tadashi places a hand against his cheek, but frustratingly he can’t tell if he is especially warm or not.

 _“Quak,"_ the duck proclaims, sounding positively miserable, its head hanging like a plant that hasn’t been watered all week long and Tadashi is certain it is saying: _‘Just get it over with and eat me before you have wild, scandalous sex that breaks this poor neighbour’s heart irreparably!’_

Alright, he needs to do something against that train of thoughts!

“Dude, _please,_ just one more time, you know he values your opinion and I need him attentive or he’ll fail balancing and accounting - _again!"_ the maybe-pixie knocks once more.

Tadashi stops his key halfway into the lock. That last comment doesn’t quite fit into the scenario his head has focused on.

“Just show him the video of the puppies bathing for the first time and leave me alone. I have a report to finish and do not have the time to play your cheerleader!" Tsukishima announces vehemently and next thing Tadashi knows, he can hear the sound of footsteps walking away from the door.

Is _‘bathing puppies’_ some kind of code for porn? Because unless it is, he is afraid his previously so flawless logic of jealousy might have gone sideways. He shakes his head and shoves the key all the way into the lock.

“Hey, _you there!"_ someone taps his shoulder and Tadashi stiffens. _Oh shit_ \- they noticed him eavesdrop. How many ashes will be left of him to burry? Then again, it will save his mothers the costs of having him cremated, so this might actually be a better way to go.

With a shudder, he turns around. _“Yeah?"_ he croaks out.

The dark-haired casts a quick glance up and down the hallway, then he puts a hand over the duck’s head and mumbles: “Can you do me favour? I need you to compliment my duck!”

 _“What?"_ Tadashi yips. He _really_ needs to google the latest euphemisms for sex acts, because unless _‘complimenting someone’s duck’_ means _‘blowjob’,_ he has absolutely no idea what in heaven’s sake is going on.

 _“The duck!"_ and the stranger nods at the bird in his arm. “Can you say something nice to him, _please?_ I really need him to be in a good mood and compliments usually cheer him up, but _Cranky Pants over there_ won’t open up for me, so you’d be doing me a huge, _huge_ favour! Please, man, I got no one else to ask!”

“Oh, _umn… wha…_ what kind of compliment?" Tadashi doesn’t know why he is engaging in this madness, possibly helping his love rival to increase the value of his courtship item.

“Doesn’t matter. Just use _grand_ terms, _okay?”_

 _“Okay,"_ Tadashi gulps and the other’s face brightens up, taking his hand off the duck’s head and holding it out to him until he can look the bird in the eye. “MrDuck," Tadashi starts off, “I’d _umn…_ like to tell you, that you look very… _stoic…_ today and _erm,"_ this is harder than he thought it’d be. He gives the dark-haired a look, pleading for help, but he just lifts his thumb and nods encouragingly. “Your beak is very majestic and your feathers look... _ah, umn..._ dazzling," he tacks on, his voice drifting into the slightly higher-pitched spheres of a desperate student, trying to squeeze out an answer after being directly targeted by the professor, “And I, _umn…_ admire you _greatly!?”_

For a moment they wait, both Tadashi and the man fixating the duck. It seems to inhale, and something like triumph appears on the stranger’s face. Then the duck just lets out a long, depressed, whiny _“Quaaaaaaaaaak,"_ and he groans loudly.

“You can’t be fucking serious!" he half-yells, turning the duck around and lifting it up to his own eyes, shaking the bird aggravated. “What do you want, _hm?_ Corn chips?”

_“Quak”_

“Chicken Nuggets?”

_“Quak”_

“I _erm…_ hate to interrupt, but I don’t think you’re supposed to feed a duck well… _umn…_ chicken," Tadashi shily lifts his hand.

The pixie takes the duck down and makes a dismissive gesture. “Ah don’t worry, he’s an omnivore! Anyways, thank’s for trying!" he grins. “I’m _Kuro_ by the way - Tetsuro. And the stupid poultry goes by Bokuto Koutaru, aka Mr _‘The only reason I haven’t been kicked out of uni is that I replaced my brain with enough muscles to get a sports scholarship and someone was stupid enough to make me quarterback of the football team’.”_

“Oh… _erm_ I… I’m Yamaguchi Tadashi," and before he knows it, he is offered a fist to bump. It feels awkward and somehow Tadashi is convinced he’s doing it _all wrong._ No one has ever offered him a fist-bump before and he doesn’t feel cool enough to go through with it, but ignoring it would be rude so… he slowly clenches his fingers and shily taps them against the other’s.

“Welp, _gotta go_ \- do you know if there is McDonald’s anywhere close?”

“I _umn…_ I have _a nut mix,_ if you’d like to try that?" Tadashi suggests instead. The horrors of having strangers in his flat are only narrowly overshadowed by the apocalyptic scenario of feeding a duck chicken, but they are overshadowed.

 _“Nah,_ can’t steal your food - from one struggling student to the other, _that’d feel wrong!"_ Kuro shakes his head.

“Oh, how did you…?”

“The bag, but if you’re _not_ then -”

“Oh no, _I am!_ I just restarted today.”

 _“Cool_ \- where?”

“Central.”

 _“Ey_ \- small world, _us too!_ What do you study?”

“Architecture… and _you?”_

 _“Nice!_ Business administration.”

“Oh, _umn…_ interesting!" Tadashi nods with a shy smile. “Anyway, I _umn…_ I accidentally grabbed the acorn mix and I’m really not a fan of acorns, so I wouldn’t mind you taking it if it can help with your _umn…_ duck.”

Kuro glances at him for a moment, then he shrugs and looks at the duck: “Whadya say, Bo? _Acorns?”_

The duck lifts his head with a slow: _“Quak,"_ that, with a lot of fantasy, sounds at least somewhat less depressed.

“Can’t hurt to try!" Kuro decides. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem!" Tadashi nods. Passing a bag of nuts seems like the perfect opportunity to ask how the other knows Tsukki. Yes - he has this planned out! At least he _thinks_ he does… _he hopes._

The other adjusts his grip on the duck and follows Tadashi inside, kicking off his shoes in the entranceway, taking an unashamedly curiously looks around.

“Nice hut!" he whistles.

Tadashi glances at his single-room flat. It’s… it’s _okay,_ he’d say. Nothing fancy, but cosy enough to feel like home. He dumps his bag next to his eating table slash desk and throws a look at the small kitchen enclave. Oh shit, _where_ did he put the nut-mix again? Thinking hard, he starts to open random cupboards and drawers, while his guest takes a closer look around, stopping in front of a low shelf where Tadashi has arranged his books and some random trinkets.

Suddenly he whistles impressed, lifting the duck up and exclaims: “Look, Bo: _Dishy chicks!”_

_Boom!_

“Nice! _Akaashi’s hotter though!”_

Tadashi, just having found the pack of nuts, flinches so hard, he slams his antlers against the cupboard door and stumbles back with a surprised wail.

 _“Ow!"_ he exclaims, clutching his head, blinking to get his spinning vision back under control and locate the source of the sudden, loud _pop_ and the inexplicable urge to sneeze, but before he can, a second cry echoes through his flat.

 _“Seriously?_ I bust my ass all day long and all you wanted was _some busty MILFs?_ You get over here, you useless poultry!" and Kuro throws himself at the strange man with spiky grey and white hair that has suddenly appeared out of thin air, teeth bared.

They fall over Tadashi’s third-hand sofa and go down with a loud thud, raising up a dense cloud of feathers. For a horrible moment, Tadashi is certain, they fell on the duck, somehow causing it to just… _burst_ under the pressure of two grown men crashing down on it, then his synapses klick and his brain concludes: Shapeshifter.

_Boom!_

Something comes soaring at him and Tadashi throws himself to the ground, hands clutched over his head. _‘This is why you do not engage with anyone!’_ the perpetually complaining voices in his head remind him.

“Hey! _Get back here!"_ Kuro yells, climbing back over the couch. Tadashi risks a glance up. The other’s hair is smouldering and smoke rises from his nostrils with every aggravated exhale, chest heaving heavily. Then his eyes fall on Tadashi and his expression turns into something confused, heading straight for outright concern.

It only takes Tadashi a short glance at his own hands to find out why. They, and everything he can see of his arms, have decided to develop toxic purple splotches. Huh… he hasn’t had that kind of colour in a while!

Hastily he sits up and rubs at his skin, sweat starting to rise in his neck. _‘No, no, no, no, not now, not now!’_

 _Boom!_ \- right next to his ear.

 _“Hey hey hey,_ you good?”

Tadashi can just barely understand the words through the ringing in his ear and dizzily blinks against the grey and white spots taking over his vision. Soft… why is everything suddenly so soft? Aren’t heart attacks supposed to make you feel fuzzy? Oh no, is he having a heart attack? Or was that a symptom for a stroke? Is he having a stroke? 

_‘With my luck, it’s both!’_

_“Achoo!"_ he sneezes loudly, a ticklish feeling pinching his nose.

“Dude, he’s turning _purple_ \- he’s clearly _not_ fine!" Kuro rolls his eyes audibly.

“If you ask me, that’s more of an intense _lilac.”_

 _“Not the point,_ Bo!”

 _“Achoo!"_ Tadashi sneezes again. His hearing still seems a bit off, but at least his eyes function properly again. Carefully he focuses on his dotted fingers, carding through a layer of unfathomably soft feathers, covering his floor. Oh how much he’d like to just drop to the ground, rest his body on this soft bed and - _“Achoo!”_

“Man, get a broom or some shit, but clean up after yourself!" Kuro prompts the shapeshifter. Bird… bird shapeshifter spreading his discarded skin all through Tadashi’s flat. His old and rusty vacuum cleaner is not going to like this!

“I can’t just go snooping through peoples things! _That’d be rude!"_ the shapeshifter by Tadashi’s side objects vehemently.

 _“‘ts fine!"_ Tadashi chokes out, shaking off the down resting on his face and hair.

“Cool - does that mean I can have the nut-mix now?”

Tadashi looks up, squinting. What… _oh yeah,_ the acorns for the bird. He held the package in his hands before he had to _duck_ and cover - pun not intended. _“Umn…,"_ he starts rummaging through the feathers until he finds the plastic bag and hands it to the man. “Here.”

 _“Sweet!"_ the stranger plops back on his ass, starting to shove nuts into his mouth. “I’m famo...famen...famished?!" he looks up at Kuro who nods with a sigh and the grey-and-white-haired start to beam, rewarding himself with a walnut, proudly repeating: _“Famished!”_

“Sorry for the chaos. _You okay?"_ the pixie, his hair no longer smoking, asks Tadashi who rubs his wrists. Luckily the purple has quickly retreated back under his sleeve, only lingering around his knuckles and the pad of his thumb.

“Yeah umn… think so… _think so!"_ he mumbles, nodding.

“The uh… _turning lilac_ supposed to happen? Or do you need like… _medicine_ or some shit?" the pixie crooks his eyebrows.

Tadashi opens his mouth, only to close it again. It’s not _supposed_ to happen… at least he thinks so. But he also isn’t sick or anything. He ends up shrugging, pulling at his sleeves, to draw them as far over his hands as possible. His ears feel way to hot to not have turned a bright, ashamed red. “Happens sometimes. _Dunno why,"_ he muffles into the collar of his sweater.

“Got ya self hexed?" Kuro chuckles.

Tadashi shakes his head. “Always been like this!”

 _“Hm,"_ the pixie scratches his chin.

 _“M’be t’sch de t’l,"_ the spiky-haired shapeshifter suggests through a mouth full of nuts.

 _“Urgh_ \- chew before you talk, that is _disgusting,_ Bokuto!" Kuro turns his head away.

The shapeshifter swallows pointedly and repeats: “Maybe it’s the tail? I’ve heard that sometimes shapeshifter hybrids struggle to choose a form.”

Tadashi feels the blood drain from his face and he whips around so fast, his neck cracks and a searing hot pain pierces through the base of his skull and his shoulder. _There it is_ \- curled up between the feathers, slipped from under his sweater, the puffy tuft at the end twitching from one side of the other.

Hastily he grabs his tail and stuffs it back under his clothes, but they already saw. He is about to open his mouth, not yet sure of what to say when a loud knock echoes through the flat. Never before has he been relieved to hear someone banging at his door! 

_“Sorry!"_ he yips, jumps to his feet and bolts for the tiny entranceway, although he can clearly feel his two guests exchange a look and a shrug in his back. 

_“Ye-,"_ Tadashi opens the door, only to be pushed back immediately.

“Thank you for opening! _Please pardon the intrusion!"_ Tsukishima grunts and storms straight into his living room.

 _“Tsukki!"_ Bokuto exclaims enthusiastically.

 _“Out!"_ the vampire snaps back. “You got what you wanted, now quit bothering my neighbours! You two are an embarrassment!”

_Boom!_

_“Quak”_

_“Nooooooooooooooo!_ Kei! I _just_ had him back to normal!" Kuro wails.

“Do I look like I care?”

Tadashi closes the door, quickly turns around and takes in his flat, after three transformations covered by a layer of feathers that reaches up to his ankles.

The vampire his towering above the pixie still kneeling on the floor, fretting over a deflated duck, wallowing in misery amidst its own coat.

“What’s your problem, _huh?_ Tadashi-San was nice enough to help out after you refused to!" Kuro jumps to his feet.

“I said: _Go away!_ Not: _Annoy my neighbours!_ You are the _worst_ friends!" the vampire half-yells back, a faint pink creeping up into his cheeks.

_Boom!_

This time Tadashi is quick enough to cover his face in time before the fourth wave of feathers washes over him.

Bokuto sniffs, his hair in disarray, but his eyes are big, round and hopeful. _“We’re your friends!?"_ he asks in a pitifully high-pitched voice.

Tsukishima’s expression derails hard and his jaw tightens to a degree, Tadashi is afraid he will grind and splinter his teeth if he keeps on that pressure! The blond’s eyebrow twitches and his fingers clench and relax as he realizes he now has to pick the lesser of two evils.

Say _‘no’_ and depress Bokuto beyond repair or agree and never get rid of him, ever.

 _“Possibly,"_ he grits out after a long silent second, buckling under Kuro’s glare.

_Boom!_

Tadashi coughs through another cloud of down. By now there should be enough to supply a whole pillow factory for at least a week.

_“Hoot!”_

“No - don’t…. _don’t you dare!"_ Tsukishima yells, before his voice is muffled and drowned out.

Tadashi waves his hand in front of his face to clear away the feathers. A huge, grey and white owl has landed on the vampire’s shoulder, hugging his face with its mightly wings. The one golden eye that is left visible of his face looks positively annoyed, already regretting his answer.

Tadashi thinks it looks kind of cute. He didn’t take Tsukishima to be the kind of person who has such energetic friends… _or any friends at all._ On one hand, this means more competition for Tadashi, on the other hand, it is somewhat delightful. He chuckles into his hand as the owl starts to affectionately nibble at the vampire’s hair. 

The… wait a moment, _what happened to the duck?_ Once again he opens his mouth, but no sound escapes his lips, although this time because Kuro seems to have realized what he was about to ask, jumped across the room and slapped his hand over Tadashi’s mouth.

“For the love of all gods, _please don’t!"_ he whispers. Tadashi looks at him, with big, shooked eyes and the pixie sighs, casting a glance over his shoulder to check if the shapeshifter is still bussy and lowly tells him: _“Long things short:_ He’s got himself cursed in middle school, doesn’t remember who the witch was, so now he’s only counter cursed and whenever he’s depressed he turns into a duck instead of an owl, but please, for the love of me, do not bring it up, it only gets him down and he… well, _‘quack’.”_

Tadashi furrows his brows in confusion, but he nods and Kuro takes the hand away from his mouth. Then they both look at the happy owl, still perched upon Tsukishima’s shoulder, chest puffed and beaming contently, while the vampire is trying to crane his head as far away from the bird as possible. Tadashi doesn’t know that much about magic. He tried to so some once in the futile hope of being able to do something that’s actually useful, read a few basic books and he is friends with Hitoka, but other than that he has no knowledge of it. Still, that is enough to know that only the witch who originally cast a curse can fully lift it.

And after a short, hesitant moment, Tadashi lifts his sweater to let his tail fall out and starts to massage it between his fingers. It sometimes gets cramps when wrapped around his torso all day long. He’s not entirely sure what motivates him to do it, but maybe, if he’s not the only one in the room struggling with species stuff, then maybe they won’t make too much fun of him.

Kuro notices and bumps his elbow, nodding at Bokuto. “He onto something? You _uh…_ shapeshifter hybrid?”

Tadashi shakes his head: “Don’t know what I am.”

 _“Ouch_ \- that must _suck!"_ the dark-haired grimaces.

Tadashi shrugs. “Bit _yeah…_ but it’s not really that… pressing.”

“Aside from the fact that you turn purple - excuse me - _lilac_ at times," Kuro duns him and he feels his ears heat up.

_Boom!_

Tsukishima looks like a snowman, covered in grey and white owl down from head to toes. Then he sneezes. It’s an oddly high pitched noise, much like a squeaking hamster. _Fuck,_ Tadashi needs an intervention _so_ damn bad! He turns his face away to hide his grin and flushed face.

Kuro has less grace and snorts out loudly. “What was _that!?”_

 _“Shut up!"_ Tsukishima snaps, glaring at both of them while he swipes the feathers off of him.

“Sorry, Tsukki," Tadashi turn his eyes down, only half in shame. There is still a single feather resting atop his blond hair.

“I’ve been meaning to ask the whole time," Bokuto chimes up. “Who are the two dames on the picture?" and he points his thumb over at the shelve.

Now Tadashi feels heat rise into his face for a whole different reason. _“Those are my moms!”_

“You’re a foundling?" Kuro asks with genuine sympathy in his voice. It’s the logical assumption people always make, so Tadashi already knows what conversation will now follow and takes a deep breath.

“No, my actual mom and her wife.”

“Uh, _uh,_ uh, _I wanna guess!"_ Bokuto beams and grabs the picture off the shelf, squinting hard at it, then at Tadashi and back at the photograph. _“Umn…_ the foxy redhead is the wife and the one with the fine rack is your - _Ow!”_

Kuro hits him in the shoulder the same moment that Tsukishima rips the frame out of his hands and places it back in its spot, hissing: _“I think you know you’ve overstepped!_ I’m calling Akaashi!" then he punts off into the kitchen, to create the illusion of relative privacy while pulling out his phone.

 _“Good_ \- he’ll be less tempted to ignore your calls than mine. Did you know he has me saved as _‘Pain in the ass’-San!?"_ Kuro calls after him.

Tsukishima looks at him perfectly deadpan. “How else would he have you saved other than under your real name?”

 _“Ha ha,"_ the pixie rolls his eyes.

“So which one is it now?" Bokuto rubs at his beefy biceps.

“The uh…," Tadashi fights with himself, “... on the left.” He decides.

Bokuto turns to double-check the picture, then he hums respectfully and nods. _“Big boobs_ \- lucky you!”

Kuro rolls his eyes very audibly and Tadashi’s head starts to feel like a sauna.

“So what is she?" Kuro asks.

“Human," Tadashi answers.

“Like... _total human?"_ the dark-haired’s eyes widen in surprise.

He nods.

 _“Wow,_ you really don’t see that often anymore!" Kuro whistles. “But it’s easy then, isn’t it? You gotta be what your dad i…. _Ohh,"_ and the pixie catches his own fraudulent thoughts, saving Tadashi the hassle to explain.

“No clue who my dad is," he shrugs it off. “My mom, she _uh…,"_ he tries to find a better word, but in the end, there is no workaround, so he just ruffles his hair and decides to get it over with. _“... used to be kind of a slut._ Had a lot of boyfriends and the one she had when she got pregnant ditched her on the spot. So she decided she had enough of guys and got herself a girlfriend. Ma was her second try and they’ve been together since, so… _that’s that.”_

It’s out. It’s done, now they can make fun of him.

“No shame in being a confident woman," Kuro shrugs. “Just sucks a bit for you!" he looks at Tadashi, notices his sourly pinched lips and hastily adds: _“From a scientific viewpoint,_ I mean! Nothing wrong with two moms.”

“Congratulations, you just managed to _out-insensitive_ Bokuto! _I applaud you not,"_ Tsukishima sneers at the pixie with a scrunched nose, apparently having finished his phone call and looks at Tadashi next. “You know this is _your_ flat and you can kick them out _any time_ you like!?”

“He’s not _that_ wrong," Tadashi just shrugs. 

“Don’t _you_ have a _‘report to finish’?"_ Kuro challenges the vampire.

Tsukishima’s face is positively pinking now. _“I do!"_ he snaps back. “But I can’t just let you two stress my neighbour into a nervous breakdown!”

Kuro looks like there is something very witty he’d like to reply, his lips curling into a slightly evil smirk, but he decides against it, merely lifting a single provocative eyebrow, before shrugging much too leisurely.

 _“Oh,_ I _erm…_ I’m fine, really!" Tadashi feels his ears heat up. Tsukki came over to defend him…. _“I’m fine,"_ he repeats. And he is… apart from his heart trying to beat its way out of his chest. 

“Your pulse is at 130, you are everything _but_ fine!" Tsukishima snaps and grabs him by the hand. “Sit down!”

They are touching for more than two seconds. Tadashi would very much like to swoon, but he’s afraid his apartment is too small and with four people inside there is no room left for him to fall dramatically. And so, before he can look for a nice spot to just pass out in, Tsukishima has pushed him down on the sofa and stomps off to the kitchen.

Kuro doesn’t hesitate and plops down next to Tadashi, winding an arm around his shoulder, whispering into his ear: “Want me to raise your temperature, so he’ll feel your forehead?”

Tadashi nearly chokes to death on his spit, though before he can put enough coherent words together to form an answer, the pixie has already shuffled away, looking up innocently.

Tsukishima has returned with a glass of water, handing it to Tadashi with a brisk: “Stay hydrated!" holding it at the rim, in a way that there is absolutely no risk of their fingers getting anywhere near touching when Tadashi takes it.

 _“Thanks,"_ he murmurs and thankfully drowns himself in the glass, so he has an excuse not to look anyone in the eye.

Not the pixie, not the vampire and certainly not the shapeshifter looking from one of them to the next, head crooked to the side curiously.

“Come on, why so stiff!" and before he can stop it, Kuro has grabbed Tsukishima around the hip and pulled him down onto the couch on his other side.

The vampire tries to shove him away, but the pixie has a firm hold on him. A very _intimate_ hold…

 _“Are you dating, or not!?"_ Tadashi blurts out entirely unprompted, but that tiny mockingly affectionate nuzzle is the last drop in a barrel of frustration, uncertainty and horrible pining. He can’t take it any more.

The second the words are out, he clasps a hand over his mouth, horrorstruck. Three pairs of eyes stare at him.

Then Bokuto erupts in vivid laughter, that forces him to flop down on the floor, causing a cloud of old feathers to rise into the air.

“Only in my nightmares!" Tsukishima grunts.

 _“Awww,_ but that means you’re dreaming of m- urgh, kch, kch, kch," Kuro starts but he is interrupted by a coughing fit, when the vampire grabs a handful of feathers and stuffs them into his face, before pushing him off the sofa.

“I’m sorry, I just…," Tadashi fumbles for a reason as to why he has asked something so sensible from people he barely knows, but his words are drowned out by Bokuto’s roaring cackles and - _boom!_ \- the breathless owl, collapsed on the ground, makes tiny wheezing noises as the shapeshifter comes down from his amusement high.

 _“Here,"_ Kuro hands him a phone while fighting his way back up to his feet. “That’s my boyfriend!”

Tadashi takes a look. _“This is a seal!"_ he deadpans. “In a bathtub.”

“Oops. Swipe," the pixie encourages him, while struggling to get his own grin back under control.

Tadashi swipes. The next picture is a bit harder to identify but after some staring, he spots the human nestled into what looks like two dozen blankets at the absolute minimum. The only things peaking out of this odd burrow are a face with a red Alice band, keeping black hair with the tips dyed blond out of a round face with bloodshot eyes and two short arms holding a video game controller. 

_“He’s...,"_ he starts.

“The _fucking cutest thing_ you’ve ever seen!? Yes, _yes he is!"_ Kuro declares proudly, snatching his phone back and blows an air kiss at the picture.

That was not exactly what Tadashi was going to say, but he is smart enough to just nod.

“Don’t let the extraordinary cuteness fool you, though!" the pixie declares, sticking out his chest. “He’s also pretty and smart and strong and -”

 _“Vicious,"_ Tsukishima mumbles under his breath.

“Amazing!" Kuro narrows his eyes at him. “Kenma is _amazing!”_

_Boom!_

“I agree with vicious!" Bokuto raises his hand like a pupil answering a question.

By now there is not a single patch of anything left visible under all the feathers accumulating in Tadashi’s flat. Kuro seems to notice that too because he takes a deep break and declares: “Okay, _that it is:_ No more indoor transformations for today!”

“Aren’t they supposed to vanish after some time?" Tadashi asks. Usually, the excess skin a shapeshifter sheds evaporates shortly after the transformation.

Tsukishima swipes some of the down away from his glasses. “He’s a very strong and potent shapeshifter… _unfortunately.”_

 _“Ahhahahahah!_ I’m amazing!" Bokuto laughs out loud, flexing his biceps.

 _“That…,"_ the vampire puts his visual aids back on, “...is _highly_ debatable”. But he is smart enough to only let Tadashi and Kuro hear him.

Tadashi snickers into his hand. He has no idea how he will ever clean all of this if it doesn’t vanish on its own, but somehow… yeah, he dares say he is having fun. And also he is _really close_ to Tsukki!

“You know what!?" Kuro declares with a grand gesture, that results in Tsukishima rolling his eyes preemptively. “You’re a good guy, Tadashi! And in my professional opinion, there is a lot of unused salt under those lilac splotches!”

Tadashi looks at his hands in panic. _‘Oh no, are they back? Why?’_ But his skin has resumed the usual colour.

“We just need you to grow some confidence and shake that booty ‘till it snows!”

 _“What?"_ Tsukishima mumbles with a confused grimace. Tadashi agrees.

“I need to get Bokuto to pass that test tomorrow but then we are free to start working on you!”

 _“We?"_ Tsukishima returns flatly. 

“Sure, _this is gonna be fun!_ I think we can reuse parts of Bokuto’s emotional work-out plan” - “Which I never agreed to take part in.” - “and if by the end you can give him a dressing down without him going purple” - “I will not insult Yamaguchi.” - “then we know we’ve succeeded!” - “Yes, because your genius plan brought forth such _rich_ fruit the first time!”

And all three of them turn to look at Bokuto still flexing, looking very happy with himself.

“Well, if that isn’t confidence _then what is?”_

“You spend half the day trying to get him out of duck mode!”. Kuro opens his mouth to object, but Tsukishima cuts him off with the next comment: “And if you turn Yamaguchi or in fact _anyone_ into a second Bokuto, I will personally make your life a living hell!”

 _“Ouch!"_ Kuro touches his heart in pretend hurt. “Don’t worry, I aced my process optimization exam last semester - I’ll perfect the living shit out of that personality work-out!" he then turns to Tadashi with a fat grin. “You’re gonna be flexing like that in no time!”

Again, Tadashi agrees with Tsukishima! And not only for the reason that he’ll agree with Tsukki on _everything,_ but also because he is relatively certain, that he doesn’t want to flex. _‘I just want the colours to stop! I just want to be normal.’_

But he doesn’t say it out loud. There are people actually invested in him. He’s not quite sure if he likes that yet, but his forcibly lonely heart, used to survive on the incredible number of _two_ whole friends, thirsts for company. And while the weary parts of him, bitter and cold from the years of being hunted and exploited, scream at him that it is all one great trap to hurt him, the more reasonable voices point out, that neither Bokuto nor Kuro are species that feed on energy or blood and that Tsukishima… if Tsukki wanted to hurt him, he’s had about a _million_ chances by now.

So either he is the world’s stupidest vampire or actually not after Tadashi. At least not in the food kind of way.

And that is why he can’t tell Kuro he doesn’t want help flexing. Just like he can’t tell Hinata he has absolutely zero interest in his epic cornflake adventures. Useless knowledge and skills seem to be the price he has to pay for company. 

“Can’t wait!" he grins shily.

 _“Oh no,_ you already broke him," and Tsukishima carefully prods him in the shoulder, as if to test whether he was still attentive or if his brain had already turned to mush.

The later was unquestionably the case, but it wasn’t exclusively the two intruders’ fault.

 _“Wohoooo!"_ and before anyone can stop him, Bokuto has wrapped his arms around Tadashi and lifted him into the air, spinning in circles. “More friends!”

“Bo, you’re not in grade school anymore!" Kuro grins. _“Put him down!”_

Bokuto does _not_ put him down. Only when a soft knock echoes through the flat does he pause. Tadashi never imagined you could turn knocking on doors into a form of art, but here he is, enlightened, listening to the most graceful knock he has ever heard.

 _“Karghshi!"_ Bokuto beams, letting go of Tadashi, racing the few steps to the door and moments later he is spinning the next person through the flat, spraying feathers all around.

“Bokuto-San, I’m happy to see you too," the new man says, seemingly used to being handled like that, then he looks down from his seat on the shapeshifter’s biceps and stretches out his hand to Tadashi: “Akaashi Keiji. _Nice to meet you._ Please accept my apologies for the trouble he has caused you!”

“Oh umn… Yamaguchi Tadashi, n...nice to meet you too and it’s… it’s okay!" he takes it, still slightly bedazzled by the other’s grace.

“Bokuto-San!?”

“Yes, Akaarghshi?" the shapeshifter beams.

“As far as I am informed, you have an important test tomorrow! Why are you devastating innocent people’s accommodations instead of studying?”

Bokuto freezes mid-movement and the dark-haired man slides back down to the ground, hands locked behind his back, brows knitted.

“I… .... … _it’s Kuro’s fault!”_

 _“Oi!"_ the pixie’s head snaps up, furiously and a tiny burst of flames shoots out of his ears.

Tsukishima snorts into his hand, giving the other a spiteful glance out of the corner of his eyes.

Akaashi sighs, shaking his head and massages the bridge of his nose.

“Thank you for calling me, Tsukishima-San!”

“It’s my civic duty," the vampire replies.

The other takes a look around, then he shakes his head again. _“What a waste,"_ he mumbles and makes a grande, swiping gesture.

Little golden sparkles ignite between his fingers and a glittering breeze hushes through Tadashi’s flat, collecting all the feathers in a tiny hurricane before both the wind and the down disappear with a little _‘plop’._

“There," he dusts the last sparks off on his thighs and Tadashi gapes at his furniture, polished to absolute perfection. “I took the liberty of sending through a whole clean sweep spell. I hope that wasn’t too intrusive.”

He just shakes his head. Tadashi’s certain his flat has never been this clean. As in: _Ever!_

“Thank you then, for entertaining him!”

“Oh, n...no problem. It _uh…_. it was…," Tadashi doesn’t know what it was.

Kuro flinches in pretend hurt. “Now that is _just cold!"_ but when Tadashi swirls around, his hands raised in a frenzy, trying to explain, he just bumps their elbows, rolls his eyes and grins: “Just kidding. Thanks, man!”

“Yeah - I love acorns!" Bokuto snatches the nut-mix from where it has been laying on the table. Tadashi already forgot how this madness started.

“See you tomorrow then!" Kuro snatches his jacket and shoes and slaps Tadashi square over the back.

 _“What?"_ he yips.

“Well, we gotta make a battle plan for getting you flexing, _don’t we!?_ I was thinking lunch in the canteen. Food’s surprisingly edible there. Tsukki can fetch you and show you our table," the pixie explains.

The vampire opens his mouth as if to reject the idea out of hand, throws a glance at Tadashi and grumbles something incomprehensible, pointedly avoiding eye contact.

With some last waves and another bone-breaking squeeze from Bokuto, they all trickle out of his apartment one after the other.

“Where is Kenma?" Kuro asks Akaashi while they are walking down the hallway.

“He saw the stairs, said: _‘I am too old for this shit!’,_ sat down on the floor and started playing Fortnite on his phone," the witch answers, then they are at the door and the pixie’s answer is cut off.

For a moment Tadashi and Tsukishima stand side by side and look after them.

“Quit while you still can," the vampire advises him drily.

Tadashi giggles. “I think they’re… _somewhat charming.”_

_“They are madness.”_

“Charming madness?" he looks up and the other looks down. For a moment there is a weird kind of silence, then the blond shrugs and steps over to his door.

“Wait!" Tadashi calls out in a sudden burst of confidence that lasts a whole millisecond and leaves his head swarming with things he wants to say and yet the only words that find a way out are a hoarse: _“Good night!”_

“Good night!”. And the door of the other’s apartment falls shut.

Only a heartbeat later a different door bursts open, however, and Yachi storms out, grabs him and pushes Tadashi back into his flat, pulling at his clothes, ultimately bringing him down to her level, where she starts forcing his mouth open, peering inside with a critical and oddly panicked expression.

“Y’ch’i!?" he muffles surprised and mainly confused, trying to shake her.

Eventually, she lets go, exclaiming: “Oh, _I feel so terrible,_ I heard all the noise and I got worried, especially when all these scary guys left just now. _You’re not hurt,_ aren’t you?" she asks, only to go straight on, not waiting for a reply, _“I can’t believe it,_ I was so wrong but I _really_ thought Tsukishima was different! That stinking _stupid,_ he will taste my garlic powder, that arrogant, terrible -”

“Yachi!" Tadashi interrupts her. _“I am fine!”_

She surges the front of his shirt again, forcing him to look at her.

“Yamaguchi Tadashi, _don’t you dare lie to me!”._ She sounds a lot like his mother.

“I am fine!" he repeats.

“Thank all heavens, because I don’t have any garlic left, I used it all the day before yesterday," she drops in relief. “But _who_ were they?”

Tadashi sighs and ruffles his hair. “You’re not going to believe me! I just had _the weirdest day ever!”_

And he tells her everything. From Hinata’s flatmate, his professor’s gymnastic ball, the headless centaur and his missing mentor, to the pixie and his duck slash owl, at times in radiant disbelief, all of this happened in less than 24 hours, with a nagging feeling, scratching at the back of his mind, that he hasn’t even glimpsed at the chaos still ahead of him.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and welcome ^-^  
> I hope you enjoyed reading Chapter 1 and I deeply appreciate any and all feedback!  
> Thank you for reading and see you next chapter (hopefully).


	2. The Tengu, The Wolf and The Siren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Officially part of 'The Gang', Tadashi feels much better at the new university already. If only he wasn't so far behind on his lectures and if only there wasn't the lanky werewolf determined to eat him. How long can he avoid his first incident and what his hiding behind the face of his mysterious new mentor?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter, in particular, I'd like to highlight the 'Blood and Injuries'-Warning as it gets a bit darker towards the end!

_‘I quit,'_ is all that Tadashi can think off when the physics professor shuts off the projector and dismisses them. _‘Day 2 and I quit!’_

 _Fuck,_ he’s neck-deep in shit! And not only because there is a succubus that has been eying him with interest for the better part of the lecture now, but also because he seems to be even further behind on subjects than he thought. If he doesn’t want to fail Physics III so bad, he gets throws out of uni with a kick in the ass and a _‘dunce’-hat_ as souvenir, he’ll have to start camping out in the library! 

With a groan he presses the heels of his hands against his eyes, to keep the formulae and functions from physically leaking out of his overstrained brain. He’s deeply and lastingly fucked - and sadly not in a nice, loving way, but rather with a metaphorical piece of rebar.

“Hey, _doey,"_ an arm wraps around his shoulder and Tadashi flinches back at the sudden proximity. It’s the succubus, nose much closer at his ear than he would have liked. He can hear the other’s long inhale. _“You lost?_ Haven’t seen you around here before?”

The other looks relatively normal, but Tadashi can already feel the slight tuck at the base of his back. It isn’t the full _‘Help - someone is trying to pull out my spine’_ sensation yet, but it won’t be long until it is. He needs to get away and he needs to get away fast.

His eyes dart for any possible way out. A distraction, a gap in the stream of students moving towards the exit of the building, just anything.

He tries to subtly wiggle away, but the succubus has a firm grip on him. Tadashi begins to panic slightly. What if he cries out? _No,_ it will only attract more attention to his tastiness and he doesn’t yet know who he can trust.

“No need to be so shy," the succubus grins a little too sharply, giving Tadashi a little jolt, that could have been playful if there wasn’t this terrifying hunger in his eyes. “Just trying to be nice! This place is pretty big.”

Tadashi tries to gulp discretely and suppress the nervous sweat. He can feel his back tingle and he wonders which colour it is turning. _‘No!’_ he forces his mind back to attention, but his thoughts are slowly and steadily growing more and more slugging like they are made from honey. He’s all too familiar with this first symptom of his energy being diverted and the aching in his lower back grows into a stronger pulsation. He knows he can endure this longer than most people before passing out, but he also knows he needs to break contact quickly before it starts to immobilize him.

The students around them slow down as they reach the bottleneck of the doors. Tadashi grits his teeth. When they pass through, there might be a tiny chance for him to slip away. In his head, he counts the remaining steps, both to calm his roaring anxiety and to stay focussed, while his life energy is being pulled from his body.

_‘Six. Five. Four.’_

He closes his eyes, takes a shallow breath, forces his weakening knees to keep him upright.

_‘Three. Two.’_

They are being squeezed together and the succubus has to readjust his arm around Tadashi’s shoulder.

_‘One!’_

He exhales, trying to make himself as slim as possible and pulls his head in. Like a slippery piece of soap between two hands, the masses around him squash Tadashi tightly and he manages to slip forwards, out into the open, leaving his surprised attachment behind.

With relief relaxing his stomach, he risks a glance back over his shoulder and - _“Oof!"_ barrels straight into Tsukishima.

“Hey!" the vampire grabs him by the collar to keep Tadashi from falling over. His mouth opens, probably to complain, but then he seems to notice the lingering distress in his eyes and the paleness of his face and starts squinting into the stream of students. _“Who?"_ he mumbles with a chilling calm.

 _“Succubus,"_ Tadashi gasps once he has found his footing again and turns to look for the importunate brunet, but he seems to have shaken him successfully. “But _erm…_ I think he’s gone. I… I shook him off," he gulps.

“You’re pale!" Tsukishima assesses him with a critical look.

“You’re _red,"_ Tadashi returns, before clasping a hand over his mouth.

The vampire just grimaces in mild annoyance, scratching at the sun-rash on the back of his hand. Just like yesterday, autumn is dialling up one last time before it will fade into winter and from the stage of sun-rash, the vampire must have waited outside for a little while already.

He opens his mouth to apologise for the rude and insensitive comment, but Tsukishima just waves a hand in his face dismissively. “Shut up, Yam-”

He doesn’t get any further. With a screech and the flash of outstretched talons, something tiny and orange barrels into him at maximum speed.

Tsukishima rips his arms up with a yelp, swatting the hissing and spitting tengu across the nose.

 _“Hinata!"_ Tadashi calls out, using the moment of disorientation to wrap his arms around the other’s middle and pull him off the vampire.

 _“You stay the heck away from my friend,_ you mean foureyed leach!" his friend shakes a fist at the blond, clawed legs still struggling. “Or you’ll taste my claws!”

Tsukishima scoffs and readjusts the glasses that have gone dangerously askew on his face.

“Hinata!" he forces the tengu to pay attention to him by pulling at one of the large flight feathers sprouting from his shoulder. “It’s okay, he _wasn’t_ the one who leached off of me!”

The orange-haired stops short. _“What?_ Who? _Who was it?"_ and immediately starts to twist and turn in his arms until Tadashi has to let go, in order to avoid being ripped to shreds himself. With a loud hiss, the tengu flaps his wings, rising a couple of feet into the air, as if anyone would be stupid enough to step forwards and willingly face his wrath. And oddly enough, someone _does_ wrench their way out of the stream of students only to snatch the tengu right out of the air by his foot.

 _“Will you stop causing a scene,_ you useless dumbass!" Kageyama snaps, ears bright red. 

“Well if your lazy slow pants take so long, what _else_ am I supposed to do?" the tengu bristles.

“It’s not _my_ fault! I had to help Iwaizumi-Senpai with the heavy weights," the witchling barks back.

 _“Sure thing,_ you and your human noodle arms," Hinata cackles, pressing down his hair and muttering: “I am Kageyama and I am _sooooo_ strong!”

The witchling turns an incredible shade of purple, that not even Tadashi has managed so far and with a _‘Pang’,_ his sleeve catches fire. Hinata bursts into laughter as Kageyama starts hitting his clothes in order to extinguish the flames.

 _Splash!_ Someone empties a bottle of water over his head with an unnerved: _“Not again,_ Tobio!”

The dark-haired sneezes. “Thank you, Iwaizumi-Senpai!”

The older student with short, spiky, black hair that has appeared behind the witchling shakes his head with a sigh and screws the cap of his bottle back on.

 _Whoosh!_ A gust of wind shakes Kageyama through on the spot, but once it seizes, he has dried down again and apart from the black spots on his clothes and his wildly ruffled hair, there is no sign he was ever on fire.

He sneezes again. “Thank you, Hanamaki-San!”

And no second later, Tadashi spots the strawberry-blond wind spirit he already met at the auditorium yesterday, floating behind the Iwaizumi guy, followed by the tall centaur, carrying his head under his arm like a basketball.

“No _‘Senpai’_ for me? _That is just cold!"_ Hanamaki sighs in pretend hurt, the impish spark in his eyes giving him away.

“Quit harassing my kohei!" Iwaizumi attempts to punch him in the arm, but the wind spirit simply rises higher into the air, out of reach and pokes his tongue out at the tinier man. Then he takes a look around. “Hey, _where’s Tooru?”_

“The _fuck_ do _I_ know. It’s not like I have him _chipped_ or anything! If he feels above going to his lectures, that’s his beer," Iwaizumi grunts out. _“Come on._ I need to refill my bottle. And you: _Keep it together_ or finally start carrying a fire extinguisher!" he flicks his fingers against the shell of Kageyama’s ear, but there is a softer, more endearing turn to his eyes, before he nods at the rest of them and turns to walk away.

Hanamaki waves at Tadashi with a grin and the centaur huffs in mild amusement as they follow him.

“You know them?" Tsukishima plucks a black feather out of his hair and looks at Tadashi rather deadpan, making a loose gesture at the entire ensemble. The still laughing tengu, the flustered witchling and the departing trio with Hanamki mumbling something to Iwaizumi, whose head whips around so fast they can hear the crack from a distance and he gapes at Tadashi before shaking his head and starting to massage the bridge of his nose with a very audible: “Oh fuck, _the poor kid!_ Noone deserves that!" which results in the centaur cackling like a hyena.

“Yeah _umn…_ sort of," Tadashi chuckles nervously, wishing the floor would just open and swallow him whole. “What… _why_ are you here?" Tadashi fidgets with his fingers, eyes on the ground.

“Well Kuro was…," he pulls an even stronger grimace, before forcing out: _“right!"_ and shudders. “You can’t know where they normally sit and if you search the whole cafeteria all by yourself, you won’t have any time left to eat, so I came to fetch you this once. But apparently, _you are already served.”_ The blond explains with a pointed look at Hinata and turns away to punt off.

The tengu has the decency to look at least a little bit guilty.

 _“Boke!"_ Kageyama cuffs him over the back of his head.

“Tsukishima, _wait!"_ Tadashi wrings his hands and hurries after the vampire.

He struggles a bit to keep up with him on the first few metres, then he manages to match their steps and nervously grabs the strap of his bag tighter. He totally forgot Kuro offered him to eat with them! _“Thanks,"_ he mumbles quietly, casting a glance at the vampire whose golden eyes are trained to the front. The skin of his cheeks and nose seems agitated and Tadashi can’t help but feel something warm wind in his stomach. Tsukki walked across the whole campus, took a detour and waited outside in the sun, just for him.

He’s flustered but he also feels rather guilty for causing the vampire that much work. And for prompting his best friend to attack him!

Speaking of him: “I’m sorry! But it _did_ look like you were going to gobble him up," Hinata chirps, fluttering along next to them, no trouble keeping up with their long strides as long as he remains airborne. Kageyama catches up with them only a few seconds later.

Tsukishima eyes the tengu’s talons out of the corners of his eyes and replies with a dry _‘tsk’._

Hinata looks at Tadashi, slightly helpless. Tadashi shrugs. He had no idea what that is supposed to mean either. Both of them turn, on the slight off chance Kageyama paid any attention to them, but the witchling is way too busy, inspecting the fire damage to his hoodie.

Tadashi sighs. Great… just… _great!_

“I can’t keep you from following me, but _stop_ dumping your feather-germs on me!" Tsukishiam eventually growls at Hinata a few steps later. “I already have a bird I need to deal with and one is _one too many_ for my taste!”

“I’m _not_ a bird!" Hinata hisses back, feathers pointedly fluffing up, but he whizzes around Tsukishima, nearly causing him to stumble and demonstratively settles on Kageyama, looking as bird-like as he possibly could!

The witchling doesn’t even seem to notice the tengu perched upon his shoulder.

Together they stride along the lawns, always in the half-shadow of the trees planted along the paved ways and Tadashi can feel how Tsukishima relaxes once the sun doesn’t burn down onto them directly anymore. In fact, the rash has almost vanished entirely by the time they enter the cafeteria. Merely the rims of his ears still seem rough and itchy.

They make their way along the wall, passing row after row of tables, filling quickly with all kinds of students, balancing loaded tablets and heavy bags. Western University, where he used to go, was relatively mediocre. It wasn’t small but it also wasn’t anything special. Central on the other hand is huge and inhabited by all kinds of species and hybrids Tadashi, being a shy boy from the countryside, has never seen before. 

Kageyama throws Hinata off his shoulder as they enter, but the tengu doesn’t seem to care much, his large eyes shining with curiosity, nose twitching high in the air.

Tsukishima leads the way through the entire main hall, up a few flat steps, across a tiny hallway lined with vending machines and down some steps into a second spacious room full of tables that is still empty compared with the first but filling steadily with students as well. The vampire moves halfway through the room until they reach a table in the outer row, in front of a pillar separating two of the room-high windows.

It’s bright and yet there is no direct sunlight. Perfect for any group involving a vampire or just heat-sensitive people.

The table is empty, except for a tiny heap.

“Hello, Kenma-San," Tsukishima greets it and the heap grumbles.

The name does ring a bell with Tadashi and so he carefully moves to drop his bag on the other side of the table, hoping to catch a glimpse.

Hinata takes the exact opposite approach and drops right next to the heap with a beam. “You’re playing Fortnite? _That is so cool!"_ and he fumbles out his phone. “A friend from Middle School made me download it, but I just can’t get a hang! _See,_ I’m trying to build a tower but I can’t attach the fireworks the way I want to, it’s super frustrating, I feel so dumb, _can you teach me,_ pretty please?" he starts furiously tapping on his screen.

The heap leans visibly away from the energetic tengu, rambling about how one of his friends suggested triangular modules and how that doesn’t fit at all with the design of the lava trench. But as soon as Hinata presents his phone to the heap it wiggles. And wiggles again. Slowly, a face appears from the inside of the hoodie that would be ginormous on Tadashi, let alone on the tiny man, slowly unfolding his body on the bench. It’s the vicious blanket beast from Kuro’s picture - _his boyfriend._ Well, _odd things happen,_ Tadashi supposes.

“Could be worse," Kenma asses after a long, critical look at the phone. “I think you’ve just forgotten a few tiny parts. But I made a YouTube tutorial on that," and he starts typing on his own phone again.

 _“Woaaaaah,_ you have your own channel!? _That is so cool!_ Look, Kageyama!" and he turns to the witchling, who just huffs out, without even looking. “You didn’t even _look!"_ Hinata complains. “Boring Bakageyama!”

“If you give me your number, I can send you a link," Kenma mumbles.

“That’d be _super_ great!" Hinata nods eagerly. “How can I ever thank you?”

 _“I’ll take your desert,"_ Kenma informs him and the tengu lets out a tiny, conflicted whimper. _“Joke,"_ the other huffs, his lips quirking just the tiniest bit, “Like and subscribe.”

 _“Yeah!"_ Hinata nods, visibly relieved he can keep his desert. “I’ll like all the videos a _hundred_ times!" he declares with a beam.

Tsukishima just shakes his head, tapping Tadashi’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get something to eat before the good stuff is all gone!”

“Oh… _yeah,_ sure!" and Tadashi jumps back up, giving Kenma, finally aware of the people surrounding him, a shy wave.

“I’ll be back soon!" Hinata chirps at the heap, as if they’d already become the best friends on earth and follows them with skipping little jumps, pulling an annoyed Kageyama by his sleeve.

“What _umn…_ Kenma-san, he…," he fumbles, throwing a glance back over his shoulder.

 _“Selkie,"_ Tsukishima informs him and Tadashi nods.

Back in the small hallway with the vending machines, they run into Kuro, Bokuto and Akaashi, balancing tablets with food.

 _“Uaaaaaah,_ the tiny tengu man!" Bokuto exclaims, pointing at Hinata, his tablet swaying dangerously.

“Bokuto-Senpai!" the tengu replies in amazement.

“Well if that isn’t a surprise - _how comes?"_ Kuro cackles.

“He’s that super fast newbie from the football tryouts yesterday!" the shapeshifter explains. _“The kid with the funky moves!”_

Hinata fluffs up with pride to double his regular size. “You know Bokuto-Senpai? That is _sooooo_ cool!" he informs Tadashi and Tsukishima. “Are you friends?”

 _“Bestest_ of friends!" Bokuto sticks his chest out.

Tsukishima just grunts something vague and incomprehensible. Kuro cackles lowly, but Akaashi steps on his foot and mumbles under his breath: “He’s been in a good mood all day and if you take that from him, _I will castrate you!”_

The pixie gulps visibly. “Well, we better get eating and you hurry before all the curry is gone - today’s pork day!”

Kageyama has left them faster than anyone can blink, darting towards the food, only leaving a human-shaped cloud of dust where he once was.

“Hey, _you jumped the gun!"_ Hinata calls out in complaints, chasing after him. “That’s unfair!”

“Let’s go," Tsukishima adds dryly and in a more reasonable pace, they follow.

~~... ~~

Kuro was right with his assessment that the food is both very edible and very affordable.

His Ma still makes a better curry, but Tadashi will be fair and still rate this one as good. Or maybe he is digging in like crazy because he needs to make up for the energy that succubus managed to leach off of him. It wasn’t much, in relation to Tadashi’s generous reservoirs, but still enough for him to feel it missing.

The table is just barely constructed for so many people and if one more person joins them Tadashi is convinced it will collapse.

“What took you so long anyway?" Kuro puts down his iced tea and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Bakageyama set himself on fire and his tutor had to put him out," Hinata informs him.

 _“Oi!"_ Kageyama’s ears flush bright pink and he tries to cuff him over the head, but the tengu skillfully ducks underneath the punch, seemingly determined to prove his agility to Bokuto.

“Who do you got?" Kuro raises an eyebrow.

 _“Iwaizumi,"_ the witchling answers.

“Cool - _wait,_ Kitsune-Iwaizumi or Dragon-Iwaizumi? _Or is there a third?”_

“He’s a _Half-Dragon!_ His mother’s an aquatic shapeshifter or something like that," Kageyama corrects him through a mouth full of rice.

And Kuro shrugs: “You never stop learning," while Tadashi nearly passes out on the spot. He was _so_ close to a dragon without even knowing! _Oh,_ his poor, _poor_ anxiety heart.

“Who is _your_ mentor, Hinata-San?" Akaashi asks politely, quickly adding: _“For his subject,_ Koutaro," as Bokuto opens his mouth in offence, clearly seeing himself as the primary person of worship.

“Asahi-Senpai!" the tengu chirps.

 _“Azumane_ Asahi?”

A vibrant nod. “He’s awesome and he draws real pretty!”

“Ah yes, _very polite man,_ I like him too," Akaashi approves thoughtfully. “One of the few people with manners around here," and he shoots a distasteful glance at Kuro.

 _“Hey,_ what did I do?" the pixie calls out in affront.

“Nothing… _yet._ I just wanted to mention it preventatively," and the witch takes a gentle zip of steaming hot chocolate.

“Hearing that from someone who drinks _cocoa_ with his pork curry feels like a human rights abuse!" Kuro retorts.

“Shut up, _iced tea basic bitch!”_

“Akaashi: _One._ Kuro: _Zero,"_ Kenma declares sleepily and his boyfriend gasps scandalized.

 _“Betrayal!"_ he whispers.

“And _you,_ Tadashi?" Akaashi turns to him as if nothing had happened.

“Oh _umn…_ I haven’t met him yet," he admits shily, after washing his mouth with a zip of sprite. 

“But who is it?" Kuro joins in.

“Ah _erm…_ Oikawa Tooru.”

 _“Ha!"_ Kuro bends over in a wheeze. That is not a good sign!

“My condolences," Akaashi adds. Yep, _definitely_ not a good sign! “How have you not met him though? I thought you already know Iwaizumi and Oikawa is usually not far from wherever he is. Plus he is sort of hard to overlook.”

Tadashi shrugs, trying to keep himself from turning green with panic. “He just wasn’t where I was told he’d be. Only the wind spirit and the headless centaur were there. The ones that were with Iwaizumi today.”

 _“Oh,_ Hanamaki and Matsukawa! _The walking memes,"_ Kuro scoffs unimpressed. 

“Well _you_ are certainly _not_ in the position to talk," Akaashi gives him a lofty glance, lingering on his hair.

 _“Come on._ He’s half centaur and half dullahan. You don’t need to be _smart_ to know someone had it in a bit too much for horses in that lineage!”

“Judging people by their bloodline is profane, Kuro! _And unjust!_ Also, it is called a _Gan Ceann,"_ Akaashi snaps back. “And they have a very old, _very_ interesting culture!”

“Hanamaki can throw things really far," Bokuto contributes. _“I like them.”_

What follows are a few seconds of mildly confused, mostly perplexed silence, then Kuro shakes his head. _“Whatever._ Point is, they are trouble _and so is Oikawa._ Be glad if you can stay away from him!”

 _“Wh.._ why?" Tadashi’s curry has suddenly lost flavour.

“Cause he keeps telling everyone he’s a siren _and that is some grade-A bullshit!"_ the pixie points his gavel at him, squinting at Tadashi.

“What is he then?”

“Don’t put such nonsense ideas in his head!" Akaashi rolls his eyes. “There is no proof that he’s _in fact,_ not a siren! And it’s not like you have any idea what else he could be”. And as Kuro opens his mouth to protest, the witch undercuts him: “I didn’t say that I _like_ him, Kuro, but you are seeing more than there is.”

“He gets into people’s heads _way_ too quickly for a siren!" Kuro huffs. “And also he doesn’t smell like one at all!”

“And how would _you_ know?”

 _“Kenma_ smelled him for me!”

“I do not wish to be involved in your conspiracy!" his boyfriend mumbles, back to showing Hinata things on his phone, while Bokuto desperately tries to catch a glimpse too and Kageyama looks rather displeased that the tengu is so occupied with someone other than him.

Tadashi swallows. His stomach suddenly feels like he’s been eating stones.

 _“See!_ You’ve made him turn yellow with your fear-mongering," Akaashi points at Tadashi, who looks at his hands, yelps and quickly starts rubbing at his skin, begging the intense, almost neon colouration that is creeping down his wrists to go away.

“He should be warned! _Nobody_ is that universally popular without some nasty trick up their sleeve!" Kuro tries to justify his actions, but he does look sorry. “Something about Oikawa is _fishy,_ that is all I’m saying.”

 _“Fish?"_ Bokuto and Kenma look up in unison, appetite gleaming in their eyes.

Akaashi buries his face in his hand and shakes his head. _“No,_ Bokuto-San. _Finish your curry!"_ before looking at Tadashi and patting his hand well-meaning. “I think you are a critical thinker anyway, so you won’t get into any trouble," he tells him.

Tadashi nods, gulps and just barely resists to exchange a glance with Tsukishima. That succubus incident earlier doesn’t exactly help Akaashi’s point, but there is no need for him to know that, _is there?_

The vampire just huffs and blows at another spoon full of curry.

“By the way, _I was wondering._ You went to Western before, _didn’t you?_ I heard some rumours, but never the whole story of why the main building burned down," the witch folds his hands in front of is finished plate.

“Oh _umn…,"_ Tadashi tenses and Hinata has gone rigid. They exchange a very quick, panicked glance. “Gnome and a hydra got into a fight," he mumbles hastily, suddenly very invested in his remaining curry again, shovelling as much as he can into his face to avoid any further question.

 _“I sense gossip!"_ Kuro starts smirking from ear to the other. Apparently, their glance wasn’t quick enough. “Come on… what are you two hiding.”

“It totally wasn’t because the hydra tried to eat Yamaguchi and I punched her and she stumbled into the gnome who got really mad!" Hinata exclaims very quickly. “Not that! _Not at all!”_

And now all eyes are on Tadashi, with Hinata, suddenly deeply fascinated by the cords of his pullover, being the only exception.

He gulps and weird, brownish splotches mix into the toxic yellow on the back of his hands. He rubs at them faster, massaging the knuckles, wondering if he can just pretend he doesn’t notice the stares.

He bites his lips nervously, before muffling: _“Yeah…_ not that.”

“So to recap: _You burned down your old uni,"_ Kuro asks in radiant disbelief.

“She tried to eat me _whole!"_ Tadashi shivers at the memory of the unhinged fangs mere centimetres away from his face. “I was afraid she’d go after me again, so we just ran for it, when they started fighting. We didn’t think they’d cause so much structural damage that the whole place would burn down!" he can feel his face heat enough to cook an egg on it. _“We didn’t do anything!”_

 _“Good grief,"_ Akaashi mutters.

 _“Eyyy,"_ Bokuto reaches over and ruffles Hinata’s hair. “We’ve got ourselves some rebels, _whaddya say,_ Tsukki?”

Tadashi risks a glance to the side, where the vampire is sitting, looking back at him with an unreadable expression, before simply shrugging. “As long as they don’t burn this one down too. _I like my schedule.”_

Kuro chortles: _“Pragmatic as always.”_

 _“Yeeeees,_ pragmatic as always," someone sing-sons behind them and the entire table goes stiff. Kenma hisses. “Bit boring if you ask me… so… _regular,"_ the voice continues in Tadashi’s back and hands come to rest on the vampire’s shoulders.

“What do you want, Satori?" Kuro slits his eyes and his hair starts to smoulder.

 _“Yeah?"_ Bokuto squares his shoulders.

“Yeah!" Hinata is quick to mimic him, feathers standing on end.

“Oh _nothing really…,"_ the voice hums, long fingers tapping around on Tsukishima’s shoulders as if playing a jolly tune on an invisible piano, “I just heard some teeny tiny rumour, trickle trickle _trickle_ down through the cracks and right into my ear, that we have some fresh meat around.”

Tadashi feels his blood freeze in his veins and Tsukishima next to him grows even stiffer than before.

“So I come to greet this fresh young flower and what do I find?" suddenly a lanky body drapes itself over the vampire’s back and giant, slitted red eyes stare directly at Tadashi, who immediately feels the instinct to drop from the bench and pretend he’s already dead. The newcomer is unmistakably a werewolf! _“Betrayal!"_ the stranger whispers, mortified. “My own, cute little underling," and he pinches Tsukishima in the cheek, “selfishly hogging the snack, without even asking if someone else wants a bite too! _Can you believe it?”_

Tadashi gulps, his mouth suddenly very dry and it takes all he has in him not to whimper like the pathetic coward he is.

“That isn’t very respectful towards your elders, _is it now?"_ and the werewolf turns to look at Tsukishima, who is grinding his teeth hard.

 _“Get lost!"_ Kuro growls, his eyes emitting sparks.

“I can not _quite_ remember asking for your opinion, _matchstick man,"_ the werewolf unfolds himself to his entire height, looking down on Kuro condescendingly.

“Nah, _but you’re getting it anyway_ and if you don’t wanna listen to it, you’re free to _feel_ it!" Kuro retorts, rising from his seat as well.

 _“Oh my,_ is the sentient stove going to have a gas leak?" the werewolf blows his eyes open wide in mock surprise.

“The sentient stove is going _to release his boyfriend.”_ And Kenma hisses with vigour, his own eyes starting to gleam in the shine of the neon bulb high above them.

The werewolf hesitates for a second. Then he purses his lips, scanning the table, obviously contemplating his chances.

Around them, several groups have paused eating and are watching. Some with concern, some with annoyance and some with eager expectation written across their faces.

 _“Tendou!"_ an angry voice snaps through the air and the werewolf lets out a tiny whimper, flinching around, pulling in his head, like a dog that has been caught gnawing on the good furniture. Another man, grey hair with dark tips, his skin oddly transparent and sparkling marches down along the wall and grabs the redhead by the collar. “I’ve had it with you! _Honestly!”_

“But Semi-Semi -”

“Do not _‘Semi-Semi’_ me!" the other man snaps. “I’m busy enough keeping Goshiki in check ever since Wakatoshi showed him how to levitate! My patience is _negative_ by now and I am sick of you running off. He’s _your_ boyfriend _too_ and I’d appreciate a little help from time to time!”

They watch in various stages of amusement and confusion how the grey-haired drags the werewolf away, ranting at him.

Satori tries not to stumble, then he locks eyes with them again, points at himself, next at Tadashi before biting at the air a couple of times, showing off long canines and lifting both his thumbs with a wide, much too cheerful grin.

 _“Are you paying attention to me?"_ the grey-haired barks.

 _“Of course,_ my most precious Semi-Semi!" the werewolf whistles in response, turning a silly yet elegant pirouette, lifting the man up in his arms bridal style and proceeding to carry him away. _“Please continue,_ beloved, for your scolding is the symphony that moves my undeserving heart.”

“I hate you _so much_ sometimes," the grey-haired mutters, but he doesn’t resist and they vanish.

“That was _weird,"_ Hinata is the first to speak again.

“That was _Tendou Satori,"_ Kageyama replies dryly, looking over at his flatmate’s plate. “If you’re not going to eat that pork curry, _can I have it?”_

Tadashi wrings the hem of his sweater to keep himself from shaking. _‘Day 2 and I REALLY want to quit!’_

**~~///~~ **

If Tadashi knows one thing, then it’s that his dumbass brain will use any and all excuses to delay work. Unfortunately, he is not in a position where he can’t put off studying any longer and so, instead of walking home, changing into comfortable clothes and eating ice cream straight out of the bucket, he pinches his cheeks and seeks out the library after his last lecture.

The complex consists of four buildings. Two older ones, connected by a glass enclaved bridge on the first floor, that are home to row after row of shelves, filled with books in all sizes and shapes on every topic that may have ever been or might ever be relevant to living and thinking creatures. The third is a huge, modern cube and serves as a reading room over two of its four storeys, while the ground floor functions as the entrance hall with an information desk and the fourth floor is divided into many tiny rooms that can be reserved for group study sessions. The last building, _if you can even call it that,_ is more of a flat and long annexe to the cube and its corridors are lined with metal lockers, in one of which Tadashi dumps his jacket and his bag.

He’s been provided with a simple but thick bag made from clear plastic with the Central emblem printed prominently across one side and dumps his pencil case, laptop, notepad, calculator, water bottle and physics books inside. For some reason, not entirely obvious to him, only transparent containers are allowed inside the library.

He fumbles his student ID from his wallet, as well as the black plastic coin he has been given for the lockers. It rattles and falls through the mechanism when he turns the key and stows it away in his back pocket.

While he walks down the corridor and passes other students rummaging in their lockers, he reads over the instruction paper from his folder again. In order to activate the library card function of his student ID, he needs to insert it into the green terminal behind the column advertising university programs in the entrance area on the ground floor of the reading room cube. Then he must enter a code, printed on the paper and the password he has set for the university network. It doesn’t sound complicated but somehow he still breaks a nervous sweat once the double-winged doors come into sight.

They are prepped open for the steady trickle of students carrying transparent bags like his own in and out of the library. The entrance hall has a high ceiling and brightly coloured arrows, attached to a pole only a few metres behind the doors show the way. On the left, a corridor disappears towards the older buildings with all the books, on the right, the information desk is brightly lit and served by man, his long blond hair kept back with a thin black ribbon and several piercings in his ears, only half visibly behind a volleyball magazine. And right ahead, impossible to overlook, even by easily startled and perpetually confused architecture students with antlers, towers the advertising pillar, plastered from top to bottom with posters for the theatre club, sports activities, morning yoga, study groups, requests for project volunteers, latest information concerning books and a PSA poster reminding everyone to wash their hands with soap. Tadashi rounds it once, scanning all the leaflets in awe. Central really is _a whole lot bigger_ than he thought.

Eventually, his eyes spot a row of highly frequented blue terminals along the wall and, _shunted to the side,_ two green ones, unoccupied.

He takes a deep breath and walks over, hesitantly tapping the screen. The device is old and the touch surface clearly not up to modern standards, as it takes several seconds until the snooze-screen in the form of the uni emblem, disappears and a very rudimentary layout presents itself to him.

Tadashi is kind of glad that there aren’t many buttons he could press wrong and with relative confidence, he selects _‘New Registration’._ Once again, the screen takes several seconds to load and show him the instruction: _‘Insert ID’._

He glances the terminal up and down and notices a little slit, that has been highlighted with a yellow arrow and is framed with white tape. He carefully slides his ID in, with his picture facing upwards and inserted first, just like the instruction paper tells him to. The machine rattles loudly as it processes the card and Tadashi is convinced that the entire library must now know _he has arrived._

Nervously he fidgets with his sleeve as he watches the oldfashioned hourglass on the screen turn. It feels like he has been standing there for centuries when finally the words _‘Enter Password’_ appear together with a keyboard.

Tadashi enters the password he has chosen on the slow touchscreen and once he has successfully typed the entirety of _‘sloppyfrenchfrysupremacy9000’_ he is once again faced with the icon performing its merry turns.

By the time he gets to open a book, he will be 120!

 _‘Please enter validation code’,_ appears in front of his eyes and with a quiet _“Finally,"_ he smashes the random array of nine letters and numbers into the screen.

_‘Processing - please stand by’ … ‘Library access activated successfully’ … ‘Please take your card’_

The machine begins its hellish rattling anew as if the army of the doomed was rising through it and Tadashi taps his foot nervously, waiting for the damn thing to finally spit his ID back out so he can get down on statics and wind pressure equations. _On second thought,_ it can take its time.

He is so busy with being nervous, he doesn’t notice the man walking up behind him at all.

Only when his card reemerges from the depths of the terminal, he reaches out and a foreign hand with perfectly styled, tan fingers snatches it from right under his nose, does he flinch around, pressing his back against the machine, heart threatening to beat a way out of his throat.

 _“Yamaguchi Tadashi,"_ the man reads his name off the card, pronouncing every syllable languidly and grants him a reproachful look over its rim. “What am I to do with you, my sweet, cute, _oh so well smelling_ little Kohei that you keep running from me!?”

Tadashi gapes at him. He has only half comprehended the words, captured by the other’s eyes. They are not as clear and perfect as Tsukishima’s, but in their own way, they are nothing short of mesmerizing, marmorations in a million shades of brown glowing from within.

 _“Boop,"_ the man stubs his finger against the tip of Tadashi’s nose and he flinches back into the realm of the living. _“Ah,_ you are still responsive, _very good!"_ and he nods to himself thoughtfully, flicking the ID card back and forth between his fingers like a carny would a coin.

A few girls that have been using the other terminals point at them and giggly shily, their cheeks flushing pink. The brunet throws them a dazzling smile and a cheerful wave. One of then emits a tiny _‘kyaa’_ and they hush away, giggling madly.

“Y...ou’re Oikawa, _aren’t you?"_ Tadashi gulps out, the terminal still digging into his back.

 _“The one and only,"_ the brunet turns back at him and flashes a peace sign in his face.

“I er… _I’m-”_

“I know who you are," Oikawa interrupts him. “You are my SnackySnack-Chan-Chan. Hold on, _hm…_ no that’s too much, _isn’t it?_ We’ll just work with _‘Snack-Chan’_ until I’ve had the time to think of something better!" he declares, tapping a long finger against his chin. 

Tadashi gulps and his mentor’s eyes change into something more dangerous. “And I am not amused that I had to find that out trough campus gossip! _You see,_ Snack-Chan, people line up to be associated with me and I only accept a very select few into my closer circles. Can you imagine what it feels like when other’s have the audacity to refer to _my_ kohei as _their_ snack!? So you will understand that I was somewhat shaken to hear you did not only ignore me but rather went off with someone else entirely.”

Tadashi gulps. “I _umn…_ I tried! _Really!"_ he manages out, only a little too high pitched. “I was at the room but you weren’t there so I… _I…”_

 _“Aww,_ Snacky," and Oikawa reaches out to pat his cheek. “Not only do you have a better sense for style than half of what scuttles around in our faculty, but you are also _really darn cute!_ Remind me to get a bow for these antlers before I eat you…," his voice drifts off into thoughtful realms and for a moment they stand there in absolute silence, then the brunet flinches and blinks. “Where was I? _Oh right._ Walk with me, _will you”._ It’s not a request and Tadashi carefully oozes away from the terminal, all his senses screaming at him not to expose his back to this man.

Oikawa beckons him with his hand, before folding them behind his back and kicking his feet out as he leisurely walks towards the stairs that lead up to the reading room, his fluffy hair bouncing with every move. Tadashi can understand why the girls were so crazy about him. Oikawa is attractive but more importantly, he is energetic and proud. His posture is strong, athletic and confident. He could walk into any room, declare himself the king and people would bow without a thought. He radiates natural authority and trustworthy compassion. His aura is so strong, Tadashi almost forgets he openly admitted planning to eat him decorated with a bow less than a minute ago. _Almost…_ he gulps, clenches his hand until his nails dig into his palm so he can focus on something.

“I’m not mad, _on the contrary._ Your little stunt had me quite impressed - It takes _balls_ to ignore me. But know this: I will _not_ be ignored again and I will _certainly_ not come running after you again. You either follow me or you stay behind, _the choice is yours.,"_ Oikawa smiles again as they reach the first steps. It is brilliant, it is sharp, it feels like someone is twisting his guts with a giant mixer and Tadashi can’t decide if it’s a bad or a good feeling. But it’s an intense one for sure. “Your application was very promising and I think your talent can be nurtured into an exceptional blossom. Show me that I wasn’t mistaken when I agreed to take you on.”

Oikawa takes a few bouncy steps and nearly jumps up the last bit of the staircase. They are now in the corner of a huge room, tables arranged in rows, each one with an individual lamp and a power outlet.

Oikawa offers out the ID card to him with a mischievous smirk. Tadashi reaches for it, but the other pulls it away moments before his fingers can close against it. Tadashi frowns, his stomach clenching, this time definitely from nervousness. What is this game for? _And what the hell is this man’s deal?_ Kuro’s sceptic words keep chasing each other in his head. But he looks oddly normal. Tadashi wouldn’t even suspect him to be a siren. Of course, his voice is sweet as honey and smooth as silk, but Tadashi doesn’t feel dizzy or tempted at all. _At least not in the way a siren’s call would make him feel._

He swallows nervously and tries again, but once more, the card slips past his fingers by an inch. Oikawa chuckles at his pinched expression. _“Just messing with you,_ Snack-Chan!" he smirks and slips the ID into his chest pocket, balancing on his heels cheerfully. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bridge to design," and he winks at Tadashi, sticking out his tongue, before turning on his heels, merrily calling over his shoulder: “See you soon, _keep working hard!"_ with a melodic sing-song to his voice.

Tadashi watches him vanish up the stairs to the second-floor balcony, performing finger-guns at a water spirit that tries to stare at him discreetly from behind her book and blushes so hard her skin ripples. 

He gulps back and his hands clench around the plastic bag to tightly, the handle digs into the flesh of his palm. Oikawa is long out of sight when he moves to look for a free table, and yet he can’t shake the feeling of those infinitely deep eyes burning into his back.

~~... ~~

By the time the bell rips Tadashi out of his thoughts and he closes his physics book with a sigh, numbers and formulae swarming his head like a whole colony of murder hornets and the world beyond the windowfront has gone pitch black. Only the lanterns lining the way to the main gate flicker around the corner.

A glance at his phone tells him it is shortly before midnight. The head librarian’s voice announces that the reading room will be closed in fifteen minutes, but apart from Tadashi, only a hand full of other students are there to hear.

They all start packing up their stuff, a gentle rustling unfolding in the spacious room. Tadashi takes his fair share of time to make sure he is the last one to leave and has no one is his back. Instinctively his eyes fall on the second-floor balcony, but it’s deserted. No piercing gaze, stripping the flesh from his bones - _no Oikawa Tooru!_

A quiet breath of relief escapes his lips and he digs in his pockets for the key to his locker.

Tadashi stows his things back in his bag, then he glances around nervously… it’s one minute before twelve, _so if he hurries then….?_

He decides to risk it, slams the door shut and spurts off.

“Hey kiddo - we’re closing now," someone calls behind him and Tadashi flinches. It’s the middle-aged librarian with the piercings he saw at the information desk earlier, pulling a black rope across the stairs to keep anyone from straying back into the reading room.

“I’m sorry, can I still use the restroom real quick?”

The man sighs, ruffled his hair but then he makes a loose gesture. “Just pull the door closed behind you!”

“Yes! _Thank you!"_ Tadashi bows and vanishes in the men’s restroom.

~~... ~~

Tadashi adjusts the strap of his messenger bag.

His footsteps echo in the hallway as he walks past the rows of grey, metal doors. He is all alone in the annexe now, the automatic lights in the hallways flickering to life when he passes, revealing more lockers, only interrupted by occasional doors, leading into supply closets and rooms which’s purpose Tadashi is unaware off.

There is quiet, only his own sounds - breath, steps, rustling, growl… _growl?_

Tadashi ducks down just fast enough to avoid a direct collision with the sleek figure lunging at him. It costs him a split second to decide if he should try to hide inside or run for the doors and by the time he aims for his luck outside, his way his blocked by a very aggravated werewolf.

“Slithery little snack, _aren’t we?"_ Satori hisses with an annoyed little smile, baring his finger-long fangs, nostrils flaring, irides red and pupils blown wide.

“Stay away from me!" Tadashi does his best to keep his voice solid, grabbing the strap of his bag tighter.

In retrospect, he shouldn’t have wasted his breath on words, especially not a sentence that was practically asking for Satori to do the exact opposite!

The werewolf is on him faster than Tadashi would have expected from his sluggish movements and slams him in the lockers with enough force to knock all air out of his lungs. Tadashi coughs and, as soon as he has breath in his chest again, hisses in pain.

Claws are digging into his biceps, pinning him against the metal and teeth gleam in front of his face, the werewolf cackling in amusement.

Tadashi’s stomach turns upside down when he is granted a much closer look at the salvia gathering in the other’s mouth than he would have liked.

With a disgusted grunt, he rams his head upwards, knocking his short but pointy antlers into his attacker’s chin and Satori lets go of him with a surprised jowl, clutching his jaw.

Tadashi doesn’t hesitate again and just bolts into the next small corridor, taking the curve so steep, he almost slips, begging, begging, begging and - he looks at his hands, almost crying in relief when he sees them shimmering and slowly turning dark.

With a gasp, he turns another corner and hurls himself into a small gap between two locker units, clasping a hand over his mouth, begging that he will blend into the shadows.

 _“Snacky-Snack,_ I can smell you! _Come out wherever you are!”_

The sing-song drifts through the hallway and Tadashi does his best to breathe as little as possible, but he seems to be shit out of luck!

It isn’t full moon yet but never the less he can’t hide from the werewolf’s fine nose indefinitely. His only chance is to stay hidden long enough for the other to pass and then run for it, begging that the redhead is hunting on his own.

 _‘Please,'_ he implores his own body, _‘Please stay dark!’_

The footsteps close in on him and he needs all his strength to suppress a whimper.

_‘Please - please - please!’_

_“Tick-Tock,_ patience is running low, Snacky Snach," Satori whistles through the hallway. “Come without struggle and I’ll let you choose where I bite.”

Tadashi presses his lips together and screws his eyes shut, doing his best to tell himself this _isn’t_ a good deal, no matter how much his panicked brain wants to give in to that promise. He’s been bitten countless times already - if it can be his arm, it’ll be healed over by tomorrow!

 _‘No,'_ he tells himself, _‘You wanted to change this!’_

But change is easier proclaimed than accomplished and the truth is: _Tadashi is weak._

The footsteps and heavy, animalistic breathing are now right in front of him and he opens one eye, stealing a quick glance, at a slender back, thick, reddish fur sprouting from underneath the collar of Satori’s jacket, his clawed fingers twitching and his wolfish nose high in the air, sniffing with vigour.

He will turn and he will find him! Trapped in this little enclosure, with no way out.

Tadashi dives out of the enclosure and bolts, a second too soon.

He’s almost back around the corner when he hears the triumphant jowl behind him and he spares his hands another glance. They have changed from dark blue to a toxic yellow as if his own body was saying: ‘ _Here I am, please eat me!’_

If only he’d lasted a few more metres!

Tadashi let’s out a breathless sob of frustration and strain, his legs burning as he forces them to keep running, clinging to the futile hope that outside he will be safer - that maybe Satori will not dare to attack him again where other’s might still be around.

Pain erupts in his ankle and he hits the floor face first with a loud yell, kicking blindly and his foot connects with something.

 _“Ouch!"_ Satori yelps, the claws let go of him again and Tadashi scrambles frantically.

For a moment, they are nothing more than a mess of gripping hands, lashing arms and kicking legs, then a weight pins him to the ground, claws pressing down against the side of his face, keeping his head on the floor while a knee digs into his back.

“Now you’ve made me angry, _you little weasel!"_ Satori growls.

Tadashi pants, his bag digging painfully into his side, his mind unable to catch a clear though, breath surging over his lips in fearful gasps, spots starting to dance in front of his eyes.

“If you don’t taste as good as you smell, I’ll end you for real!" the werewolf whispers, almost delicately, his breath coming down hot against his back and every hair in his neck rises at the sensation.

Tadashi grits his teeth, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes, _but he will not cry!_ The pain intensifies when the claws dig back into his biceps and a whimper forces its way from between his lips.

 _“Itadakimasu,"_ Satori whistles and now he can feel the wetness of the wolfish nose in his neck.

_Tick, tick, tick - “Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr - Woof”_

The werewolf on top of Tadashi freezes and he dares to look up trough watery eyes, emitting a breathless sob, somewhere halfway between fear and relief.

The other wolf, no five metres away from them flashes its teeth at Satori, greyish brown pelt standing to all ends, a feral and yet oddly intelligent gleam in its eyes. Its paw scratches over the linoleum floor and the creature shakes its head in an aggressive gesture.

Tadashi doesn’t dare move, not even to breathe. If someone else is trying to steal him from Satori, then this might be a chance for him to escape while the two wolves fight!

The werewolf growls irritatedly, his position changing into a more alert one.

The other wolf barks again, its warning call echoing through the hallway and Satori growls in response, asking the gadfly to come and take his prey if he wants it so bad.

The greyish brown wolf does seem to want Tadashi badly because it bursts into a run and leaps.

The two bodies collide with a _thud_ and roll over each other, claws and fangs scratching and snapping as they tangle in a heap of red and brown fur. Satori seems to have hit the limit of his transformation and tries to wrap his arms around the brownish wolf, but his opponent is flexible and slippery, fangs deep in his hip, shaking him viciously.

Tadashi doesn’t watch any more if it. He scrambles to his feet, clutches a hand over his mouth to keep in the scream of agony as pain flames up from his ankle and starts to drag himself down the hallway. He limps the first few steps, then he picks up a slow pace until eventually, he feels comfortable enough to run again, the pain changing from a punctual sting into a pounding throb as the wound starts to close on its own. 

But blood has already soaked his sneaker and he knows he is leaving a very obvious trail, so his goal must be to find other people! A herd that can grant him cover.

He screws his eyes shut, stumbles around another corner and - _what?_ \- a dead-end?

No, no, this can’t be possible! He came from the left earlier… _or did he?_

 _“Fuck,"_ Tadashi clenches his hands in frustration as he turns back around, tries the next best hallway, lined with identical lockers and staples of chairs… _where is he?_ This is just a minor annexe to the main building, how the hell did he get lost?

_“Woof”_

Tadashi let’s out a loud yelp of surprise as the greyish brown wolf appears right by his side and snaps for his wrist, catching his jacket.

He tries to rip himself free, stumbles and hits the floor for a second time today, though this time he manages to roll over his shoulder and lessen the impact.

Still in shock over not having heard the animal approach at all, he scoots back until he hits the cold of the lockers, clutching his messenger bag and holding it in front of his chest, as a last instance of defence for when the creature will ultimately leap at him, striking to kill.

But the wolf just blinks at him, its tail lashing from one side to the other and those eyes… they are like nothing Tadashi has ever seen!

 _‘This… this isn’t a werewolf!’_ he realizes. Satori could not perform a full transformation - the moon isn’t at the required stage yet! So all other beast creatures that are moon-dependant should not be able to fully change their form either… yet this is a wolf, from the first tuft of fur on its nose to the very last hair in its elegant tail.

 _Only those eyes…_ they are nothing like they should be! 

_“You’re a shapeshifter!"_ Tadashi gasps out. “You are not going to eat me! I’m not afraid of you!" he declares. If only his voice would not shake so much, then maybe he could actually believe himself!

Werewolves are beast-men. The wolf and the human are not the same person and while they are overtly intelligent animals with the ability to act human-like, they are, at the end of the day, still just animals once they transform. Shapeshifters, on the other hand, are human at every moment. They only change their outer appearance but their mind, their character stays the same.

The wolf lets out a _huff_ as if it was laughing at him… and then it does something very _odd:_ It winks and sticks out its tongue.

Tadashi has seen this very expression before and he releases a loud gasp. _“No,"_ he breathes, rubbing his eyes. That is impossible!

“Sirens can’t transform into wolves!" he blurts out. The wolf crooks its head to the side with a sheepish smile, showing off its gleaming fangs and Tadashi remembers Kuro’s long tirade about how Oikawa stinks from here to Hawaii.

“Kuro was right! _You’re not a siren!"_ he gapes. “Oikawa-Senpai.”

 _“Geeze,_ Snack-Chan, _sure took your time,"_ the brownish wolf with the unnaturally shiny and wavy pelt barks in mild amusement. “I expect better from my disciples!”

“You’re an enchanter!" Tadashi clutches his bag tighter, as if that could protect him from his mentor’s magic. _“This is an illusion!”_

“Hm… that’d be nice I suppose," the wolf starts licking his paw. “But no, I am not an enchanter and last thing I checked you have more pressing problems than my heritage.”

 _Oh… right!_ Angry and hungry werewolf out to eat him! “What did you do to Satori?”

“Put him to sleep," the wolf inspects his claws and Tadashi notices the blood on them.

“Did you kill him?”

“In another day and age I might have… but I’m not hungry tonight and he’s not my type anyway, so I just immobilised him, though I assume he won’t stay like a good dog and come after us once he’s freed himself," the wolf tells him matter-of-factly and tacks on an a slightly annoyed: “It’s not like I can tell him what to do.”

“But I saw you command that other guy," Tadashi objects.

“Have you ever considered that I am just naturally good looking and people enjoy being able to serve me of their own free will?”

Tadashi gapes at the wolf. So Oikawa Tooru, marvelled, adored, respected and feared by the entire campus is just...

 _“Just a regular shapeshifter,"_ Tadashi breathes out in disbelief.

Oikawa growls, jumps up and puts the paw he just cleaned on his wounded ankle, pressing down with all his wolfish body weight.

Tadashi’s sharp gasp, however, is undercut but fangs snapping shut right in front of his face and a vicious hiss: “Do not _dare_ to put me on the same level as those basics ever again!”

The wolf’s breath comes down against his face hot and angry and Tadashi notices his vision blur and shift and… he’s in a forest clearing, barefoot and long silvery robes, made from soft but simple fabric drape themselves around his body. Needles and drying leaves rustle under his feet as he walks and he has just enough time to catch a glimpse of his reflection on a large puddle. Tadashi realizes two things in the heartbeat he has before Oikawa’s voice drills into his head. He is looking neither at himself nor at the brunet, at least not a familiar version of the other and his attire, clearly meant for a special occasion is splattered with blood - the shard-like, stone dagger still stuck between his ribs.

“I have walked this earth longe before people even began to use the concept of time! I was denied, stolen from and betrayed!”

The scenery changes and instead of branches and dirt, spilt organs and dead bodies litter the floor around him. In his hand, he is holding a fresh heart, blood dripping down his fingers and onto the man whose carcass he just removed it from. The smell is nauseating, but he is hungry - so, so hungry and this is the best one out of the whole bunch, so he has no other choice, despite his stomach rebelling at the thought of eating from such a mediocre person!

“I have watched nations rise and fall like you watch the life of a fly! Kings and queens alike have desired me, I wore their crowns like you wear your everyday clothes, I ruled their lands like you organise your kitchen, I snuffed their lives like you snuff an ant’s, for none could satisfy me!”

Suddenly Tadashi finds himself on a throne, a crown in his lap and a room full of people in shiny silks bowing at his feet and yet it feels like a hundred hands are roaming his body, pulling at his skin as if it was gold, as if he could be owned by the one that pulled the hardest. He knows these aren’t his own feelings and yet he is all too familiar with that sensation. One pair of hands wins and he is pulled flush against another body, broad palm pressing into his hip. There is admiration in the gesture, devotion, pride and hunger.

“I was admired, I was adored, I was feared and I was hunted as a prize, a token of power!”

He’s back in the woods, sitting on a stone, legs drawn to his chest, his gowns crusted with blood once more and the stained crown somewhere at his feet. He feels so utterly disappointed and more than anything, he feels terribly alone. He gets up and leaves, to another place, another city, another futile hope of being able to finally, finally rest! Oh, he wants nothing more than just to close his eyes and rest, but the injustice, the anger and the hunger are pulling at him, forcing him to set one foot in front of the other until the skin of their soles is raw and broken. In the distance, fanfares start blaring and dogs start barking. He turns around and pulls out a dagger - it’s the same one used to end his life - and a defiant snarl rises on his lips. 

How dare they think they can capture him? How dare they think they can force him?

 _Let them come, let them try!_ Men on horseback, clad in an unknown uniform, musketry at the ready break through the trees. 

He allows them to back him into the far corner of the clearing. They laugh, taunt him in an odd language - they think they’ve won. _They are wrong!_ They will not conquer him! 

His form changes, accomodating to their expectations, their desires, rendering them incapable of action in their awe. He raises his voice. They turn their guns against each other. He wonders who will be the last to stand - whoever it is, he hopes they will make a feast for him and satisfy the hunger… this… endless, bottomless, _agonizing_ hunger!

Tadashi lashes out, his first hits something soft and wet and the vision disappears right before the slaughter can start. Oikawa jumps back with a jowl, pawing at his snout and shaking his head, slightly dazed.

Tadashi realizes he didn’t intend to show him so much… to let him _feel_ so much!

 _“Come!"_ Oikawa barks at him sharply and turns away, tail hitting Tadashi square in the face before he can open his mouth and ask what the hell just happened!

He doesn’t move, still too stunned from what he thinks were snippets of his mentor’s memories.

The wolf growls in annoyance, snaps for his hurt ankle and starts dragging him by the leg of his jeans.

Tadashi lets out a jowl of surprise, kicking and struggling until Oikawa releases him with a shirty: “I am starting to think you _want_ to be eaten!" and turns back around to face him.

The other’s body shifts and suddenly he has the brunet cowering in front of him, brown eyes fixating Tadashi. “If you don’t want to come with me… _then who will you follow?_ Tell me… the form you desire the most?”

He tries to avoid his eyes, as the stare seems to ooze its way into his head, like silk charming his mind, a subtle invader flicking through his emotions and secrets and - 

For a moment the other’s form flickers into something ethereal, an ageless appearance, coated in a silvery glow and then - Tadashi feels his face flame up.

Tsukishima is very close, he can see the brown sparks in his golden eyes, every chip in his pale lips, every single hair of his near-perfect eyebrows. “Tadashi-San," even his voice is absolutely perfect. “You need to follow me!”

Tadashi nods, face bright red. _Tsukki has come to save him…_

He must do what the vampire is telling him!

The other’s pale fingers lace with his and Tadashi is about to ask if he can be carried because honestly, any more body contact and we will faint!

He opens his mouth, but a finger comes to rest against his lips, softly, to shut him up and… wait! Tsukishima would never do that! Tadashi blinks, blinks again, blinks stronger.

Something doesn’t add up here!

_“Awooooooooooooooo”_

They look up in synch, Oikawa emitting a displeased huff and removing his finger from his lips. Tadashi lets out a sound of mild distress at the echo of Satori’s angry howl and the sudden proximity to the brunet. 

_“Oh come on,"_ the other rolls his eyes - hold on, where did Oikawa come from? _Where did Tsukki go?_ And why is he holding his mentor’s ha… oh - _OH!_

Then again: _What?_

Tadashi licks his lips nervously, but he scrambles up to his feet. No time to figure that out now! Satori will try to take a bite from him for sure… Oikawa… maybe. And right now _‘maybe’_ is better than _‘for sure’!_ Especially since he has a half-boner which he really needs to walk off!

“Which way?" he asks.

Rather than answering, Oikawa bursts into a run and Tadashi struggles to keep up with him. Behind them, something crashes loudly and a deep growl echoes through the corridor. Suddenly the struggle seems not that great anymore.

“So what do you want?" Tadashi asks, panting.

“Less talking, _more running,_ Snack-Chan!" Oikawa huffs, but after a few moments he tacks on: “I just don’t like other people taking from my pile.”

 _“I’m not your pile!"_ Tadashi snaps - probably not the cleverest thing to say, but Oikawa just barks his wolfish laugh.

“My pile is what I say my pile is! But you can relax - I am in a committed relationship and you’re too much of a portion to waste as a secret in-between snack, never mind my boyfriend not being a fan of me hunting without him. Iwa-Chan would be pretty mad if I’d gulp you down all by myself ~”

Tadashi gives him a side glance that almost causes him to miss the corner Oikawa takes abruptly. Just barely he manages to hold on to one of the lockers and swing himself around the corner.

“So, _the french fry,_ huh?" Oikawa shoots him an amused glance and Tadashi explodes bright red again. “You sure know how to pick your battles - no wonders Satori wants his marks on you so badly.”

“That’s none of your business!" Tadashi snaps, but his voice is two or more octaves too high.

“I decide what my business is and honestly, with the right PR, you could be trending tomorrow - we just need to think of a nice ship name and a hashtag for Twitter… how about _SnackFry_ or... wait, _which one of you tops?”_

Tadashi feels blood shoot into his head at the same time that it drains from his body entirely. “You won’t tell anyone!" he croaks hoarsely.

“Give me a single reason why I should absent from free entertainment?”

“Because I will tell everyone you’re not a siren!" he announces with courage he does not know where it comes from! “That you can look into people’s heads and shapeshift and that you’re dead!”

Oikawa slits his eyes at him, coming to an abrupt stop.

“Would you look at that, _the tiny doe bites_ \- where does all that sass go, when you need it, hm Snack-Chan!? I could just leave and watch you whimper while Satori tears you to shreds, you know that, right? It would make up for the movie I missed to save your sorry ass.”

“But you won’t!" Tadashi informs him, hands digging into the sleeves of his jacket to hide how much his fingers are trembling. “Because you can’t stand the thought of him bragging with stealing something from your pile!”

Oikawa bares his teeth at him and only after a breathless moment of absolute terror, Tadashi realizes he is smiling. A cruel, scheming smile! “Lucky for you, I like it when people have a backbone. Just don’t get too full of yourself!" he flicks Tadashi’s nose with a mocking turn to his eyes. “An eye for an eye, then - _A secret for a secret.”_

He swallows back and nods. _What choice does he have?_

Oikawa shoots him a last, inarticulate look, then he glances around the corner they are hiding behind and sighs. “Seems like he’s beat us to the door - not so stupid after all, _the mouldy reddish.”_

“Then what are we going to do?”

Tsukishima turns around at him and his long, pale fingers cup Tadashi’s face. _“You_ are going to run for it!”

And without another word he changes back into his wolf form, jumping around the corner with a provocative bark.

Satori lets out an annoyed wail and no two seconds later a large, half-animal, half-human form chases the greyish-brown wolf down the hallway.

Tadashi does not watch if the other manages to catch the wolf - Tsukki told him to run and he must do what Tsukki tells him to do! 

_So he runs._

Runs down the hall, runs through the door, runs down the dimly lit path and runs across the lawns. He runs until his lungs feel like bursting, he runs until his vision is swimming and he runs, even when he can’t hear the loud barks anymore, their echo still stuck in his ears.

He runs with his eyes screwed shut.

He runs, following nothing but his instinct.

 _His instincts are useless_ \- the blaring of a horn rips him out of his panicked, flight-focused daze.

He truly lives up to the antlers on his head, tranquillized by the sudden, bright light, then the pick-up truck hits him upfront.

Tadashi feels groggy as he fights his way up to his feet, his palm oddly slick and hot and burning. Someone yells at him with surprise, concern and anger.

In the distance a dog barks.

Tadashi runs again, as fast as his woozy body, numb with agony, can carry him. Tsukki said he needs to run - so he _has_ to keep running until he’s home and safe!

At the very back of his head, a voice points out that doesn’t make any sense, but he has too much to do, to listen to it!

**~~///~~ **

Kei blinks.

Well, _this certainly sucks!_

With a huff he rolls over onto his other side, pulling his blanket tighter over his head. Not that it helps anything.

Maybe he should try and close the lid? An involuntary shudder runs down his spine as he peaks upwards. Oh, how he hates cliches! And confined spaces! Right this moment, confined spaces more!

He sleeps in a coffin because his family does and Kei doesn’t want to be standing out any more than he already is. But drinking blood directly from another person is a line he just isn’t willing to cross, while the sleeping arrangements are manageable. He even dares to say, that he has grown to favour the thin bedding in the wooden crate over those endlessly soft matrasses that seem to suffocate him and threaten to swallow everyone who lays down on them whole. Yeah, the coffin isn’t half bad - as long as he doesn’t have to close the lid! Turns out he is just the slightest bit claustrophobic.

All in all, Kei is an _odd_ vampire he supposes. He doesn’t like to drink directly from other people, because it’s just disgustingly unhygienic, and he can’t stand absolute darkness. He needs the bit of nightly light that winds its way through his curtains to be at ease… _to feel free._

But right now, he is willing to fight even that fear. _He just wants to sleep!_

“Come on!" he gnashes his teeth and twists back onto his other side. His irides expand until they cover almost the entirety of his eyeball, while his pupils slit so thinly they basically vanish and all that is left are two orbs of pure gold staring through the wall of his coffin, the wall of his bedroom, the wall of his living room, the hallway and into the flat across from his. Nothing - no warmth, no energy, no movement.

Kei sits upright, massaging his knuckles, trying to bring order into his tired brain.

It’s not like Tada… _Yamaguchi-San_ \- isn’t allowed to be out as long as he likes and Kei has exactly zero reasons to be bothered by his absence!

 _‘He’s never been gone this long,'_ the back of his head, that has been keeping him awake for hours now, tells him for the three-thousandths time.

 _‘Which is none of my business!’_ he counters as he has all the other thoughts.

But some time over the past nine months, he just got so used to watching the blob of inexhaustible, glowing energy across the hall flicker and move throughout the day, especially in the evening. Like following the movements of a lava-lamp, it has something deeply relaxing to it, just laying there, watching Tada- _Yamaguchi-San’s!,_ shape move and fluctuate through the walls, the gentle patterns twirling and blossoming in such vibrant forms and colours as Kei has never seen before.

That is the reason he drops everything whenever he notices distress in them, or when they seem dulled and tired and apparently he needs them to fall asleep now too!

 _‘Fucking pathetic!’_ he scolds himself, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes with a long sigh. Maybe if he meditates a bit?

Perhaps he could ask Yachi-San for a sleeping draught… no, the witch will notice something is wrong and then she will get worried about Ta - _for Pete’s sake,_ Yamaguchi-San! - too.

“Tadashi," he mumbles, letting the name ring through his bedroom.

Kei can’t remember _when the hell_ he lost his cool like this!

But here he is, at two in the morning, sleepless, because he is missing the neighbour he has refused to have a proper conversation with for the better part of a year now! 

He leans his head back, blinking away the dancing white spots from the pressure of his hands and reaches over the side of the casket to grab a water bottle, drink a sip and put it next to his pillow, then he grabs the edge of the lid.

He needs to sober up!

With a last, deep breath he pulls it shut behind him as he lays back down, a shiver creeping up his spine. _Good!_ He swallows back the unease, winds his blanket tighter around himself and tries his best to find solace in the calm rather than panic at the feeling of being trapped.

 _‘This is my bed, it always has been and I can open that lid whenever I want!’_ Kei reminds himself with a firm nod.

Something itches in his back and he shuffles into a different, more comfortable position. Now his breath is hitting the smooth wall of the coffin, the scent of wood filling his nose, calming him. Kei clutches his blanket tighter, pulls it over his shoulder and a yawn slips from his lips.

_‘Finally’_

He blinks a few times and the radiant pulse catches his attention immediately. 

_‘Finally!’_

He sits upright quickly. Or would have, if his head didn’t slam against something hard halfway through.

 _‘Lid. Closed. Not even five minutes ago,'_ he groggily assesses, pushing it open with a groan. 

But the dull thumping behind his forehead and left cheek is nothing compared to the turmoil of worry in his stomach.

The first time he noticed Yamaguchi-San’s - _there,_ wasn’t so hard, _was it now?_ \- energy twist in disarray, was right after the scent of fresh blood trickled through the gap underneath the door. Kei had been mostly annoyed by it. Then it happened again. _And again._

Cuts, stings, bites. Yamaguchi did not complain once. He seemed pretty used to it. Some of the injuries were smaller and would have been mended with a simple plaster, but Kei still liked to examine them. He told himself that it was good practice. To check for potential poisons. And there had been, oh, everything from hydra venom over vampire salvia to malicious energies. Yamaguchi’s body seemed to filter them like a purification plant on cocaine. Kei was fairly certain he hadn’t even noticed how frequently he was exposed to lethal amounts of contaminants. 

But today is different and Kei notices the second his eyes fall on the outline of his neighbour, the other’s life energy flickering so strong he can spot it despite all the walls separating them and without using his x-ray vision! They’ve never been this disorderly, curling and winding in agony, sunken into a heap on the floor.

Kei jumps out of the coffin, not bothering for his shoes, grabs the biggest first-aid kit he has and hushes out into the dark hallway, large golden eyes fixated on Yamaguchi’s outline, which becomes clearer the closer he gets. He only hesitates a second at the other’s door.

Yachi-San has put a few wards on the apartment. Not as many as on her own, but still the full range of basic protection charms. Kei wonders what will happen if there is one against vampires but… no, _he has been given permission to enter here!_ And so he straightens his shoulders, clutches the red pouch and permeates through the other’s door, nearly stumbling over the leather bag that carries uni supplies, dropped carelessly in the middle of the entranceway.

The smell of blood, that was slight in the hallway, is stronger in here, pinching Kei’s nose and suddenly he is very aware of the fangs resting against his lips.

Every other blood would probably nauseate him. People these days have no respect for their bodies anymore and if they could smell what Kei can smell, they might stop eating all these unfathomably unhealthy… things - he refuses to call them food. It is disgusting, it is unhygienic, it stinks. Unfiltered blood is the body’s equivalent to sewage water. But Tadashi’s blood was always clean and always impeccable because his body just filtered and absorbed everything without leaving any trace of the original poison.

“Yamaguchi-San!?" he calls, more to announce his presence and less to elicit an answer. He knows exactly where to find him - the single wall separating them is no thicker than a sheet of paper to his golden eyes.

Kei barges into the bathroom and his nostrils are hit by a wave of scent.

It’s the smell of something hunted, of prey in a corner, defeated, presenting its throat, asking for the killing blow that will finally end the suffering!

Yamaguchi has collapsed on the floor of the shower, laying on his side, breath quick and shallow, eyes glassy.

 _“Tadashi!"_ Kei drops the first aid kit unceremoniously as he falls to his knees, pulling the limp body out into the room.

Yamaguchi whimpers in agony and Kei stops moving him immediately, instead cradling the other’s head, softly patting his cheek. Dark eyebrows twitch and eyelids flutter, but the usually so clear, doe eyes underneath have gone pale and blind from the pain.

Kei’s nose twitches hastily, but while the traces of blood in the air are strong, they are also stale and dry. The bathroom is dark, no source of light and so he crams in the other’s pockets until he finds his phone and turns on the flashlight before shoving it away, so it won’t blind him.

The passive light is more than enough for the vampire to take in the damage.

There are relatively shallow cuts in both of Tadashi’s upper arms and deeper, longer marks on his ankle. 

_‘Claw marks,'_ Kei realizes and after a quick sniff, he bares his fangs, hair in his neck standing on edge. _‘Satori!’_

But the blood surrounding them is almost dry by now and the skin is already starting to heal…. also: _‘No bite!’_

So what is wrong with him?

“Tadashi," he pats the other’s cheek again, gently. “Can you hear me?”

The dark-haired boy lets out a short, pained sound, somewhere between croak, whimper and gasp.

 _‘Struggling for air,'_ the medical training in his head kicks in.

Kei grips the other’s shirt unceremoniously and his sharp finger-nails rip the thin cloth right down the middle. Somewhere in the very back of his mind, he wonders when these talons have grown.

He lets out a _‘Tsk’,_ grinding his teeth in frustration and worry as the once pale torso comes into view. Only now it is covered in huge bruises and bumps where broken ribs have left their anatomically intended position.

If he had to make a guess he would assume something very large and very heavy hit Yamaguchi upfront. It would have killed everyone else, but the mysterious boy’s inexplicable healing powers are hard at work, the bruises progressed much further than they should be, having reached an ugly purple and in parts a sickly yellow already, while the shards of bone slowly reposition themselves into order, cracking and twisting under the skin.

For a few breathless seconds, Kei is captured by this … he can not find a word other than _‘miracle’,_ no matter how hard he tries! It’s morbid, horrid, vomit-inducing, sure, but also spectacular.

He is ripped from his trace when Tadashi lets out another pained noise, this one closer to a sob as a cramp runs through his body, shaking him from the fluffy tip of the lion’s tail right into the last branch of the tiny roe deer’s antlers.

Kei knows that the healing hurts, no matter how good Tadashi is at pretending it wasn’t all that bad. But now he feels outright helpless. He can stitch a bite, mend a cut, relocate a shoulder or an ankle, bandage bruises - but internal injuries like those are way above his paygrade!

The other’s head bedded on his right knee, Kei draws the first aid kit closer and turns it upside down, fingers running through the various contents. Antibiotics, two epi-pens, several antidotes for common poisons and a single measly ibuprofen! He knows there are more in his kitchen across the hall, he knows there are probably some in Tadashi’s kitchen as well, but both these options would mean leaving him here on the floor and Kei _refuses_ to do that!

Another shudder as more rips start to move back into their original places and Tadashi emits a sob of pure agony.

 _“Shhhhh,"_ Kei shushes him, starting to run his claws through the sweat-slick hair. Words alone won’t help - if this goes on any longer the other might just go insane from the pain.

He bites his lower lip, stomach recoiling at the mere thought… but it’s the only thing he can think off!

Kei gently lowers Yamaguchi’s head back on the floor and climbs over him, knees planted at either side of his hips, breath stuttering in his throat. The boy below him is just barely conscious.

 _‘He won’t remember!’_ Kei tries to ease his own mind. It helps very little to keep back the bile as he slowly lowers his face until he is only centimetres away from the crook of the other’s neck and his long fingers start to pull away both the jacket and the torn shirt until he is presented with a smooth area of pale skin, littered with more freckles, two of them especially thick as if to guide him.

“I’m sorry, Tadashi. _It’s going to be alright soon!_ I need you to relax," he murmurs under his breath, waiting for a reaction and oddly enough the body below him actually slacks a bit. Though Kei feels it is more from exhaustion than his words. 

Kei can feel the burning, feverish heat on his nose and his cheeks and he feels it even more once his teeth sink through the freckled skin where it’s put into contrast with the pleasantly warm taste that fills his mouth. It’s like drinking a tea at the exact right temperature only that this tea has been left to infuse for too long, having grown slightly bitter from fear and pain.

He does his best not to swallow any blood and only infuse Tadashi with his own salvia. It takes a few long moments in which Kei fears that it won’t work and the other’s body is filtering too fast, then it relaxes slowly before falling completely limp and pliant and one by one the breaths even out and eyelids fall shut.

It takes Kei more self-discipline than he would have thought to pull his fangs out, hastily running his tongue over the two punctures, watching how his salvia and the self-healing work together to close the tiny wounds in a matter of seconds and only two slightly paler spots remain right next to the two darker freckles.

He signs and runs his hand through Tadashi’s hair again. The other looks so peaceful now, completely knocked out, lips slightly parted and eyebrows smoothed out. And his taste lingers on Kei’s tongue like the remnant memory of a great feast.

Kei wonders… and buries his face in the crook of the neck once more. _‘Get yourself together!’_ he scolds himself, taking a last, guilty inhale of this so very unique scent that his neighbour gives off, before winding his arms around the limp boy and propping him up against the white and grey tiles of the wall.

He carefully takes off his jacket and what’s left of the shirt, rolls up the torn leg of the pants and grabs a towel which he wets in the sink with lukewarm water. Gently and diligently he starts to clean the, already near completely healed, claw-wounds and wipes away the worst of the pain-sweat. Then he puts plasters over the injuries, even though they don’t need them anymore, and smears a good glob of appeasing lotion over all the bruises that seem to be deeper and take longer to heal.

Last but not least he carries Tadashi to his bed and tucks him in neatly. Kei can not remember ever having wanted to sleep tonight! He sits down on the edge of the mattress, smiling at the blue blanket with white, puffy clouds printed on it, listening to the rhythmic breathing of the boy sheltered underneath them, watching how the strands of energy settle and resume their usual, powerful flickering and pulsing.

It knocks him out only an hour later and he sleeps curled up at the foot end of the bed, deeper than he has ever since he can remember.

~~ ...  ~~

Kei wakes with the first ray of sunshine and flees the foreign apartment after closing the blinds for Tadashi to enjoy a couple more hours of sleep, and hastily collecting all his first aid material. There is not a trace of evidence he was ever inside the apartment when he permeates through the door and over into his own place, where the first thing he does is take a shower so cold, even his pulseless body starts to shiver - _he needs an intervention!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you once again for reading - I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well and that you're still interested enough to check out the last and final instalment on the next page ^-^


	3. The Dragon, The Ghost and The Vampire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tadashi is certain something doesn't check out. He just can't get rid of the impression someone cradled him to sleep. Someone tall, blond and gorgeous with magnificent eyes (dreamy sigh). But before he can confront Tsukishima, campus is shaken by territorial dispute and Kuro introduces him to new players in the game of 'Who can give Yamaguchi a heart attack first?'. Which wisdom can Sugawara provide him with? And do Kuro and Bokuto actually have enough brain cells to follow trough with the silver-haired's advice?

“Yamaguchi!”

Tadashi jumps a foot in the air when someone calls out his name, pulling his head in on instinct. _‘Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!’_

“Heyo," a hand comes to rest on his elbow in a playful little gesture and a flurry of black and orange hushes past him only to swirl around and beam at him.

 _“Oh…_ Hinata.. _hi,"_ he lets out a relieved breath, giving the tengu a shy smile. Yesterday has left him even jumpier than usual and he pulls his sleeves over the nervous green splotches blooming in his skin, rubbing them, begging they won’t spread any further.

 _‘Safe,'_ he reminds himself. _‘Just Hinata - he’s okay, no need to panic!’_

“It’s Tamago Day in the canteen! Do you want to eat with us?" the orange-haired asks him.

Tadashi is about it ask who _‘us’_ is, despite having a very good idea, but Kageyama beats him to it.

 _“Oi,_ quit running off, you stupid twerp!" the moody, dark-haired witchling snaps, grabbing Hinata by the collar.

The other doesn’t seem too bothered by being handled that way and instead beams at Tadashi eagerly, bird-legs gleefully kicking at the air.

“I _umn…,"_ he hesitates. He wanted to see if he could find Tsukishima and ask him about yesterday. His memory is muddy and woozy and mostly just a firework of hellish, febrile agony, but he still remembers that he collapsed in the shower. And yet he woke up in his bed and there are some snippets of memory that don’t make a lot of sense but he… he just can’t get his mind away from the feeling of a surprisingly warm breath against his neck. Then again the medical faculty is also where he’s most likely to run into Satori and his whole body starts to shake at the thought so… _yeah,_ Tsukki won’t run away. 

“Sure," he nods.

 _“Woohoo,"_ Hinata’s black feathers ruffle in excitement.

“It’s just rice with egg, you idiot!" Kageyama growls, shaking him.

The tengu opens his mouth to protest.

 _Boom! -_ somewhere in the distance, shortly followed by a deafening roar.

The witchling drops him and with an unnerved caw, Hinata pulls in his head, covering his ears, feathers spreading in aggravation, making him look like a distressed, black ball of fluff.

“Who was that?" Tadashi gulps back nervously. That sounded like something _very large_ and _very angry!_

 _“Iwaizumi-Senpai!"_ Kageyama narrows his eyes, certainty in his voice and Tadashi trusts him to recognize his tutor.

“The _dragon?"_ Hinata’s expression changes from caution into an excited beam. _“Uaaaaaahhh,_ so cool!" and before anyone can stop him, the feathers on his arms have extended into pitch-black wings and he is swooshing off into the direction of the transformation.

Tadashi and Kageyama exchange an uncertain look, then they simultaneously roll their eyes and spurt off to catch up with the loose tengu.

It doesn’t take them long before teal scales crunch under their shoes and they are stopped by a ring of curious onlookers eager to find out what is going on.

Kageyama, however, moves straight into the crowd angrily pushing and shoving himself a path and Tadashi quickly follows in his slipstream, apologizing left and right as they pass through to the front line.

His eyes scan the sky until he can make out Hinata, crouching on the highest branch of a tree close by, right next to another familiar shape. He taps his guide’s shoulder and points at the tengu and the owl.

Kageyama narrows his eyes, probably contemplating if he can blast his boyfriend out of said tree but before he can follow through, a bright flash of light catches their attention.

The square between the literature faculty and the library building is littered with sparkling scales, evenly spread around the massive blue creature hissing in its centre.

Tadashi has been told that Iwaizumi is rather small for a dragon since apparently, he isn’t pureblooded, but since dragons are one of the rarest species in general, and he has never seen a fully transformed one, he can’t really compare. It doesn’t matter though - even if he is small for a dragon, he is still _huge_ in comparison to everything else, shoulders at a minimum of four metres, leathery wings throwing a shadow over half the square, sunlight catching in the glistering scales covering his entire body, from the snarling muzzle to the tip of the heavy tail. They shimmer and shine in a thousand shades of blue, from near-black indigo, over brilliant teal and turquoise accents to dazzling azure and lapis mamorations on the wings, only disrupted by a pure white stripe running along his spine, where the scales have risen like spikes.

Another thundering roar causes his ears to ring and he has to cover them up, just barely keeping down a whimper.

_“Dang!”_

For the second time today he flinches so hard, he knocks into the person next to him, which turns out to be Kuro.

“At it again, _aren’t they?_ Man - admin is gonna be _so_ pissed," the pixie snickers.

 _“What?"_ Tadashi furrows his brows.

Instead of an answer Kuro just points to the centre of the square, where a single man is facing the angry dragon, entirely unbothered by the rows of arm-long fangs a mere metre away from his face. Possibly because his body is levitating and he seems to be coated in golden light.

“That’s Ushijima!" Kageyama points out, but Tadashi’s eyes have caught on someone else.

Oikawa is standing behind his boyfriend, leaning against the dragon’s hind leg, looking at his nails and even from the distance, he can make out the smug look on the brunet’s face. One does not need to know what exactly happened here to know it most likely originated with the not-a-siren siren.

“So kids - make your bets. _The dragon or the god,_ who will win?" Kuro taps his chin thoughtfully.

 _“God?"_ Tadashi asks, his voice slightly hysterical.

“His family are descendants of a locally still worshipped harvest deity," the older explains relatively unphased.

“And they are going to fight?" he swallows back nervously. _“Here?”_

“I sure _hope_ they will - would be a show," the pixie cackles mischievously.

 _‘We’re all going to die,'_ Tadashi decides, hands nervously clenching around his tail. He needs something to hold on to right now, even if it’s just himself. The last fight he witnessed resulted in his previous uni burning to the ground. He can’t go through that again!

Another bright flash of light, this time laced with purple lightning glints around Ushijima and the dragon draws his head back, an icy blue flicker rising from the ribcage up the long neck until it gathers in his throat.

Tadashi turns to scream at the people to run for cover, but he notices most of them have already sought shelter - _behind them!_ All around the square several bulks have formed with single people at the front and only seconds later Tadashi understands that apparently everyone has simply identified the closest person with fire-powers or the ability to conjure a shield as to take advantage of them.

A flame so intense and blue, it’s almost white, lightning flashing inside the inferno, bursts from Iwaizumi’s unhinged jaws, colliding with the aura of pure, godly energy around Ushijima. A wave of fire and purple flashes races towards them and for the blink of an eye Tadashi is once again certain he _will_ die and this time there will not even be something left to burry, then Kuro’s eyes flicker a radiant crimson, his hair goes up in flame as he lifts his hand and with a loud crack a flaming, red shim cuts into the approaching cascades of doom, parting it around him and the group huddled behind them.

“Welcome to the campus life," Kuro shouts at him over the roaring and clashing of the different energies, giving a gleeful thumbs-up.

 _‘I should have just stayed home,'_ is all that Tadashi can think about, as he screws his eyes shut, hoping the end will come swiftly. But _nooo,_ he _had_ to drag his exhausted body back to uni!

The wave rolls over them and the two contestants jump at each other.

Ushijima floats to the side, avoiding Iwaizumi’s lunge, who crashes into the ground, spraying dirt and grass everywhere, but the dragon simply jumps back up, long tail whizzing through the air like a whip the size of a freight train and smashing Ushijima into a tree.

Loud screams of protest mix into the sounds of the fight as the avian students who just lost their perch rise into the sky.

Tadashi can barely look, covering his face with his hands, merely peeking through his fingers as the dragon jumps again, deadly claws stretched out, a new flame igniting between his fangs, entirely unimpressed be the spear of pure purple and golden light manifesting in his opponent’s hand.

 _‘One of them will die, one of them will die, why is nobody stopping this?’_ he can feel the panicked green splotches spread on his skin, engulf his fingers and his neck and his heart is jumping so vividly it seems to be trying to escape through his mouth.

 _“Halt!"_ the command thunders across the campus and the crystal clear, female voice is very audible despite all the other noise, as it seems to come less from a person but from the air itself.

Glowing, translucent, copper chains appear out of nowhere, winding around Iwaizumi’s muzzle, wings and paws, forcing the dragon down with a surprised jowl, killing the fire in his throat. The same happens to Ushijima, who’s magic evaporates as if someone had flicked a switch and shackles bind his wrists to the ground.

Fearful murmuring starts to rise from the student body, that inches back from the scene.

 _“Aw shit,_ that was too quick… _damn old party poopers,"_ Kuro sighs disappointedly, ruffling his hair.

Slowly Tadashi takes down his hands and peers through the settling dust.

The onlookers part quickly around the three approaching people. Two men and one woman, and to his surprise they seem to be students as well, not teachers.

The one in the middle, with tousled, short-cropped black hair, seems to be commanding the binding spell, a soft copper flicker dancing around him, runes and glyphs, which Tadashi has never seen before, glowing on his skin, one hand stretched out, the other supporting the arm at the elbow. The most noticeable thing, however, are the mighty antlers sprouting from his head, which incite a feeling of respectful jealousy in Tadashi who can’t help but reach up and touch his own, tiny ones. 

_“Oikawa,_ what is going on here?" the woman demands to know and a soft sigh runs through the crowd.

Tadashi coos and bows his head only to blink several times… _what the hell?_

Kuro snickers at his reaction. “That is Shimizu Kiyoko, chairwomen of the student council and current campus kick-boxing champion," he explains before Tadashi can ask.

“Is she a siren?" Hinata asks curiously, eyes sparkling in awe. 

“Haha - you’re _adorable!"_ the pixie barks out with a half-laugh, “Take a good look cause that is what an archangel of royal blood looks like.”

Tadashi shivers slightly. He can feel an aura of gentle power radiating from that woman. It’s making him feel safe and at the same time encourages the inexplicable urge to fall to his knees and start singing songs of praise.

 _“Well,"_ Oikawa eventually answers and crosses his arms over his chest, though there is hesitation in his movements and nervousness in his eyes. Even he seems warry of this Shimizu woman. “He _harassed_ me!" he makes a loose gesture at Ushijima. “Iwa-Chan was just defending my honour.”

The third newcomer, a smaller man with fluffy silver hair snickers into his hand, which earns him a poisonous glare from Oikawa.

 _“Ushijima?_ Your word," Kiyoko turns to the still chained deity, who scowls at the man that bound him for a few more seconds, before clearing his throat.

“One of my following was attacked yesterday night and I have determined Oikawa Tooru’s presence to at the scene”

She does a quick scan of the surrounding students. _“Satori?_ I have heard tha-," but Oikawa undercuts her with an offended snort.

 _“Oh please,_ UshiWaka, don’t turn yourself into a joke!" he snaps, “I study here, my aura is _everywhere_ on this bloody campus!”

He doesn’t get the reaction to those words because nausea rises in Tadashi and the sudden, loud drumming of his heart drowns out everything else. Hectically he swirls around, ready to bolt. This is his fault! _‘If they find out, if Oikawa tells them, if…’_ his throat closes off tight and he has to force every breath… 

_Boom!_

_“Hey Hey Hey,_ Tadashi-Chan, where are you off to so quickly?”

He sneezes into the cloud of feathers that suddenly clogs up his bubble and stumbles into Bokuto and Hinata.

“Do you need to poop?" the later asks curiously.

“I…," Tadashi shakes his head, swaying slightly. “I need," but he can catch neither a clear thought nor a good breath, every attempt ending in viciously choking on the floating down. They will hunt him or expel him or both and there is nowhere he can run, so he has to get off this campus and… and… and…

“You don’t look well," the tengu’s tone of voice changes from his usual chirp to a more concerned one. “Are you okay?”

“Probably the shook - newbies don’t always handle the territorial banter well and they really got going there just now," Bokuto declares, grabbing Tadashi by the elbow. “Come on, we’ll sit you down," and starts dragging him back, right in the direction of Kuro, Kageyama and his inevitable doom.

Tadashi opens and closes his mouth several times, but he is chanceless!

Something seems to have happened because the chains binding Ushijima are gone and he pointedly stomps off into the direction of the canteen, followed by Shimizu and the students in their way jump apart in mild distress, desperate to clear a path for the two figures practically glowing with authority. Iwaizumi, however, is still chained to the ground, wriggling and growling, hissing after his opponent with vigour.

And no one is screaming or pointing at Tadashi. _Oof…_ he lets out a small stuttering breath. So Oikawa held his word and didn’t sell him out.

 _“Oh,_ migration is soon, _isn’t it?"_ Bokuto chimes up as soon as they have reached the front line again.

 _“Yeah,"_ Hinata nods.

“So _that’s_ why you are this squirrelly, _huh shorty?"_ Kuro cackles.

“No, _that is just him,"_ Kageyama sighs deeply.

“Is umn… is migration _really that bad?"_ Tadashi finds his voice again.

Kuro and Bokuto exchange a look, then the former shrugs. “Well if _you_ ain’t affected then at least we know you’re nothing mythical. Migration is like a fifth season - back in the day many species, like dragons, gnomes, centaurs, fairies or tengu, used to actually migrate to other regions and mate or nest there but that is just inconvenient nowadays, so only a few select ones that can afford it still do so. Imagine having that drive inside of you but being unable to follow - it’d turn you nuts too," and as if to underline his point he points at the struggling dragon, refusing to let the fight end in a draw.

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year," Kuro adds dreamily.

“You are only saying that because it’s the two months where Kenma gives more than half a shit about you, isn’t it?" Bokuto chortles.

“He is so damn _cute_ when he’s territorial, Bo!" the pixie objects.

“He’s _vicious,_ man!” 

The discussion is killed dead before it can ignite as the antlered man lets out a loud huff, obviously contemplating what to do, then he sighs and straightens his shoulders.

“And who’s _he?"_ Hinata asks curiously.

 _“Sawamura Daichi,"_ Bokuto and Kuro say in unison as if that was explanation enough.

“Suga!" the man calls out, making a gesture at the third, with the silver hair, to step closer.

 _“Urgh,"_ he laments. “Dai, _please,_ you have no idea how _disgusting_ that is!”

But he is met with little mercy and eventually gives in with a shudder and a grimace, rolling his shoulders and flexing his fingers.

“I am so, _so sorry,_ Iwaizumi-San! Believe me, this isn’t pleasant for _either_ of us," he mumbles

From their viewpoint, Tadashi can’t quite see what happens next but it looks as if he was pushing up his sleeve only to stick his whole arm into the struggling dragon’s head.

Tadashi cringes and swallows back hard. Oddly enough there isn’t any blood - his hand just… slides through the scales above the eye and - _Boom!_ \- scales rain down on them. Hinata jumps up excitedly to catch two while the rest of them covers their heads with their bags or books. Then they are left with a dark-haired man laying on his side, unconscious.

 _“Great_ \- now keep your quarrels to yourself or I’ll put a collar on _both_ of you," Sawamura gives Oikawa a scolding look, then he turns away, the remainders of the translucent chains evaporate and he walks off, back towards the library, the silver-haired at his heels, complaining loudly about what brains feel like.

Oikawa pokes his tongue out at them, then he sinks down into the grass next to his boyfriend and Tadashi is pretty certain he can hear him sigh and whisper: “You fought bravely, Iwa-Chan!" before snapping his fingers at a random student that is unfortunate enough not to have taken to their heel quickly enough, commanding her over with a good portion of whatever magic it is he’s using and declares: “Grand frappuccino, two pumps of hazelnut, extra expresso and whipped cream - _pronto._ Oh and unless _you_ want to be his after-nap-snack get me the largest, _bloodiest_ stake you can find!”

The girl, which Tadashi believes to be a nymph or some other kind of floral spirit judging by the green shine of her skin and the flowers blooming in her hair, involuntarily spurts off, eyes glassy from the honey-sweet, hypnotizing voice, following the task she has been given. 

While Tadashi can relate with her on a very deep level, his eyes are still glued to the two men disappearing in the library.

“Who is the one with the silver-hair?" he asks, adding for himself, _‘And how did he do that?’_

“That," Kuro grins at him from one ear to the other and suddenly he has a feeling he better should not have asked, _“is your new teacher!"_ he declares, giving Tadashi a strong, encouraging push in the back.

~~ ...  ~~

“‘kay, _listen,"_ Kuro still has his hand between Tadashi’s shoulder blades, entirely unaware of his best efforts to dig his feet into the ground.

In all fairness, Tadashi just had several near-death experiences in the past - forget 24 and make it 12 - hours, one of them in this very building, and he really doesn’t feel like he has the strength in him to meet new people right now. Certainly not very scary men with antlers ten times the size of his own or those that can knock out dragons by sticking their hands into their _brain!_

But the pixie pushing him seems entirely unaware of his croaking noises of mediocre complaint.

“Sugawara is cool - if anyone can help you to get this turning colourful thing under control, _it’s him…_ by the way, you got a little something umn… let’s be generous and say _everywhere!"_ the pixie goes on, pushing him further down the long, carpeted aisle, rows of shelves with myriads of books resting in them, spreading all around them.

Bokuto was more than eager to take a very enthusiastic Hinata and a slightly reluctant Kageyama to the cafeteria, while Tadashi was kidnapped and displaced.

He was guided up to the third floor and so far they have passed the tourism section and are somewhere in the middle of geography, as far as he can tell from the plates attached to each shelve.

“Kuro-San, I umn… I _really_ don’t want to be bothering anyone," he gulps out.

 _“Oh pffff_ \- nonsense, we ain’t bothering anyone," the other snorts out, then he falls suspiciously silent and tacks on a slightly guilty: _“You_ are not.”

Tadashi’s head whips around, eyes wide with horror, assuming that whatever this means _isn’t_ good, because nothing that happens to him is _ever_ good, stumbles and nearly falls face-first into an approaching shelve full of East African climate records.

Kuro grabs him by the collar and narrowly keeps him on his feet.

 _“So,_ he usually hangs out somewhere around here in the back," he mumbles, walking slower now, carefully peering around every corner first before advancing to the next.

Tadashi can’t help but notice how the colour coding changes from the dark green of geography to the lighter one marking the biology section. It’s almost the same colour as the splotches on his forearms and chest, which seem to grow larger with every passing moment as nervousness turns his stomach upside down. Unconsciously he begins to scratch at his collarbone, as if he could grate them away, despite well knowing it won’t do anything other than marginally distract him.

He is about to suggest that they try sometime else, because honestly, Tadashi really, really, _really_ doesn’t want to be a bother, also his nerves are killing him and besides, he doesn’t want to find out what he is so badly anyway. It isn’t _that_ important and -

The silver-haired man walks straight into their path, just two shelves in front of them, carrying a staple of books.

Kuro freezes and gulps nervously - it is the first time Tadashi sees the pixie’s confidence falter and if nothing else today, that is the bit that scares him the most so far!

The man looks at them, first surprised, then his lips purse in a very unamused way, not entirely dissimilar to the way Oikawa expressed distaste.

“Suga, _hey,_ fancy meeting you here, _by absolute coincidence!_ Can we -”

“Dai!" the man cuts Kuro off with a loud call and the pixie backs off hastily, then the silver-haired looks him dead in the eye before exclaiming: _“He’s back!”_

 _“Come on,_ man, _please,"_ the dark-haired makes a pleading handwave but it is too late. A copper light flickers in the aisle in front of them and through it emerges a truly mighty stag, pelt shining and dark, lowering its polished crown against Kuro and Tadashi.

“Thanks for taking out the garbage, honey," the silver-haired puts a gentle and somehow very pointed kiss against the stag’s cheek, maintaining eye contact with Kuro the entire time, who gulps very audibly.

“Yamaguchi, make my sacrifice count, okay man!? And tell Bo _I’ll always love him!"_ the dark-haired exclaims quickly, then he shoves him between two shelves, turns around and bolts with a loud scream as the stag charges at him, its massive frame and majestic antlers filling out the entire width of the aisle.

With a tiny yelp, Tadashi covers his head with his hands, but the animal just races past him, only interested in the fire-pixie loudly cursing: “Sawamura, _my man,_ let’s be civili- … fuck, fuck, _fuck,"_ voice fading and fading and fading, the further he sprints back towards the exit.

“And _you_ would be?”

Tadashi looks up. It is the silver-haired looking down at him with a slightly crooked head. He emits a loud _‘eek’,_ and scoots backwards on the carpeted ground, his flight instincts kicking in. _‘Kuro is dead and I’ll be next!’_

The stranger, however, seems to notice he is about to pass out from stress because his disparaging demeanour softens up, he sets down his books and goes down into a squad.

“Hey, _it’s alright!_ Breathe, okay?" he gently stretches out a hand towards Tadashi. “I’m Sugawara Koshi!”

“Ya.. Yamaguchi Tadashi," he croaks out.

 _“Oh,"_ the silver-haired blinks. “I see, _you’re_ Snack-Chan," he muses.

 _‘I’m dead!’_ \- “Please don’t stick your hand in my brain, I _swear_ I don’t taste as good as I smell!" he blurts in response.

The other blinks, then he breaks into soft giggles and makes small, calming handwaves. “I won’t, _I promise!_ I’m not that kind of species and I only do the sticking thing in emergencies," he shakes his head with a reassuring smile. “Do you maybe want to go somewhere more comfortable than the floor?”

Tadashi looks him up and down for another long moment, feelings fighting with experience. But in the end, he has learned to trust his guts and also he can’t let Kuro’s death have been for nothing! He owes him that much! So he nods, scrambles back up to his feet and shily dusts his hands off on his thighs.

Sugawara gives him a warm grin, picks up his books and checks if he is gripping the staple orderly. “Come on, there is a good spot this way," he nods further down the walkway and in the direction of the back of the library.

Tadashi makes a vague noise of agreement only for it to be distorted into a surprised yelp as the silver-haired walks right through the shelves.

_“Wha-”_

“Oh my, _I’m sorry,_ I totally forgot," Sugawara’s head suddenly reappears through an encyclopedia on solanaceous herbs, quickly followed by the rest of his body. 

“Are you a vampire?" Tadashi asks with hanging yaw - he surely isn’t an expert in identifying species but he _did_ believe he could at least spot _vampires,_ especially after living across the hall of one for the better part of a year now. “If.. _umn,_ I mean, I really don’t want to be rude or anything, you don’t have to say, I was just - I mean, _I’m sorry.”_

But Sugawara just chuckles again and underlines it with a dismissive gesture. “Nonsense, it’s alright. And I’m not a vampire! It’s… a bit complicated but I think _‘Half-Ghost’_ covers me best”

“Half.. _what?”_

“Well, my mother was possessed while I was conceived and for most of the pregnancy so I absorbed a good portion of ghostly energy," Sugawara explains, turning a corner down a smaller aisle, then another and a few steps later the shelves open into a secluded spot with two large and unoccupied tables facing each other. “But the only real thing I can do is permeate through objects, that’s pretty much it - the effect doesn’t even chain," he shrugs and as if to underline his point he simply walks straight _through_ the tables instead of rounding them before plopping down in a chair and dropping his books on the table next to him.

Tadashi blinks a couple of time. _‘That is wicked cool!’_ he thinks and a tiny spark of excitement rises in his belly as he draws a chair around the corner of the table so that they are sitting at a 90-degree angle.

Sugawara pushes his books away from him so Tadashi knows he has his unrivalled attention, something which would cause the panic-blotches to break out all over his skin again under any other circumstances, but somehow looking into those round, gentle, brown eyes with the playful mole decorating the left corner, has him perfectly calm.

“I assume if you’re willing to hang out with _Kuro,_ you must be _really_ desperate," the silver-haired rests his chin in his palm with a mischievous grin.

Kuro… Tadashi only knew him for a day and a half but he will be missed… _maybe._

“I umn… I don’t know," he admits, shily pulling at his fingers and massaging the knuckles until they pop. The fire-pixie didn’t say how Sugawara was supposed to help or what Tadashi should tell him. “I just… he said you could help me… I mean if you want to, which you don’t need to, he just… he said that...”

“I can’t help," Sugawara tells him and Tadashi bites his lip. “Not if I don’t know what is bothering you," the other continues and his head snaps up, his heart pounding in his chest with hope. “So what is it, that’s bothering you? _Is it your hands?”._ And Sugawara nods at the green spots still lingering around his wrists.

“No, I mean _yes,_ I mean… I don’t know," Tadashi gulps before closing his eyes, jumping into the cold water. “I just… I don’t know what species I am, only that I can do all kinds of odd things, but none of them work the way I want them to!”

The silver-haired hums thoughtfully, tapping his index finger against his cheek. “So you’re a hybrid and can’t control your powers?”

_“Yeah.”_

“That’s nothing to be ashamed of. If you’re not hurting anyone then you don’t need to put yourself under so much pressure," Sugawara tells him sincerely, but Tadashi only bites his lips, the spark of hope snuffed out like a candle in the wind. So that is the great wisdom Kuro gave his life for? The same old, unhelpful shit Tadashi has been told a thousand times already!?

A finger pokes his hand. “That’s the truth, _you know!?_ If you don’t hurt anyone you don’t need to worry, only that you are still hurting someone: _Yourself!_ It hurts when your own body feels like it doesn’t belong to you, trust me, I know!”

Tadashi looks up at the face with the soft smile and suddenly he feels like crying, hastily wiping away the dampness from his eyes before it can accumulate into tears.

“You have no idea how long I needed to figure out this whole permeation thing," Sugawara goes on. “I used to just randomly start losing stuff because my body and clothes would permeate and I fell trough more floors that I could ever count, so I know how frustrating that is when your body just starts acting up and people don’t have anything better to do than make stupid comments!”

 _“How…,"_ Tadashi croaks out before stopping to clear his throat and start over: “But walking through walls is _cool_ \- I never manage to do anything cool, I just turn orange or green or blue or some other stupid colour. It’s so fucking _useless!”_

“My power is far less universal than you might think! For once, it doesn’t chain," Sugawara chuckles and Tadashi crooks his head to the side in question. “It only affects me and whatever I touch directly. So, my clothes and things that I hold in my hand, but nothing more. If there are things inside my pockets when I permeate, they will fall to the floor. And if I touch another person, they will permeate too, for as long as I touch them, but not their clothes or anything they hold.," he elaborates and Tadashi listens closely. “I will admit, that last one does come in handy in certain situations, but most of the times I just lose all my spare change or smash my phone yet again!" and as if to underline his point the silver-haired lifts his shirt and Tadashi notices that he has his smartphone tucked under the hem of his pants to make sure it’s touching his skin directly. The screen is in pieces as if it has been dropped a dozen times already.

 _“Then…,"_ Tadashi tries to wind his head around all the possibilities. “If you touch a wall, does the entire building permeate?”

From the way Sugawara smiles at him, he knows he’s aked the exact question the other wanted him to ask.

“That is the interesting part, _isn’t it?"_ the silver-haired muses and his beauty mark dances on his cheek. “To be honest, I don’t know the exact physical rules behind it, but I don’t need to, to know my limits. And unfortunately, I can’t permeate entire buildings. There seems to be a limit for how much mass I can affect at once, that varies depending on how focused I am. The biggest thing I managed so far was a freight locomotive, but I’ll tell you, that was one big piece of work and I had constant headaches for a week straight afterwards.”

Tadashi gasps in awe.

“And I’m happy that my powers have limits! It was hard enough to figure out how to properly permeate in the direction I want to without getting stuck, in the limited radius at my disposal. If I was any stronger, I’d probably have killed myself on accident by now," Sugawara sighs.

Tadashi looks at his fingers. At least the green spots have settled by now, but they still won’t go away entirely. _“What…,"_ he gulps, “What happens if you get stuck?”

Sugawara’s expression takes a pained turn. “It depends on where and in what. But generally speaking, two matters can’t overlap, so I’d be repelled - it’s a question of what is stronger: Me or the material. If I’d walk through this table and stop permeating while still in it, the table would break and I’d probably bruise. It’d hurt for sure, but speaking from experience, I’m stronger than most wood. If I’d reappear inside something thicker, like a wall, I’d be repelled, my bones would break and my flesh might rip.” Tadashi is about to ask how he knows when Sugawara rolls up the left sleeve of his sweater and presents clusters of thick, ragged scars spanning his wrist and running across and around his forearm and fingers.

“Kuro brought you to me because I didn’t hurt anyone either, Tadashi-Kun," Sugawara looks at him. “Only myself!”

He gapes at the older student, who traces his scars thoughtfully before slowly, starting to explain. “In middle school, I was a total wallflower, you know!? Tiny, shy and nervous. There was this group in my class that made fun of me for not being able to control my powers. They thought it was really funny to jump scare me so that I’d permeate on instinct and fall through the floor, into the basement or into classrooms below, losing all the stuff I had on me. The teachers never had any understanding and I was called to the principal’s office to be scolded for my _‘shenanigans’_ almost every other day. I started to be scared every single day of going to school, I double-checked every corner and yet they still found me.," Sugawara starts to massage his knuckles. “And then one day they pushed me through a door, but I got stuck and the door broke in half. They thought it was cool, so suddenly I wasn’t jumped in the hallways anymore and instead, they asked me to stick my arm trough things to see if they would break just like the door. It hurt. _A lot!_ But I was so eager to finally be one of the _‘cool kids’,_ I shrugged off every cut and every broken bone. That was the time I found out I could manipulate the energy of living things if I’d permeate into them. I knew it was wrong and that they weren’t actually my friends, but playing along was better than living in fear and going back to being bullied, so I did what they wanted me to do until eventually, I had to pick a High School. I listened to where my _‘friends’_ would go and then I choose the School where the least of them would be and promised myself that I’d start over, _that I’d do better.”_

From the way the silver-haired closes his eyes and rubs at his temples, Tadashi gets the creeping suspicion that plan didn’t work out.

“I started to be so afraid of failing my goal, of being the bullies entertainment all over again or, gods forbid, _become a bully myself,_ that I started to have nightmares again. At first, they were few, then they got worse until one night I permeated in my sleep and fell down into a flat, three storeys below ours. I landed on a kitchen table the first time and only suffered light bruising. The second time as well. The third I broke a leg because I woke up while still in the ceiling, the fourth time it was a couple of ribs, after that, I lost count. I think you know that yourself, because you wouldn’t be here if you knew a way out, but sometimes the fear roots so deeply, that even though you want nothing more than to change, you can’t shake it on your own. It’s paradox, _isn’t it?_ When the fear is such a prominent part of yourself, a world without it seems much too scary.”

Tadashi releases a shuddering breath. Not once has anyone managed to hit the nail on the head like that. “I just don’t know what else to do… o..other than to be nervous," he mumbles.

“I know," Sugawara reaches over and pats his hand with empathy. _“I know.”_

For a moment they sit there in silence until Tadashi asks: “What did you do then?”

Sugawara smiles: “I met Daichi. Everyone thought I was weird, which in their defence, _I totally was_ and probably still am, but Daichi noticed that I was struggling to control my abilities and one day after the volleyball club he walked me home and started asking all kinds of questions about my abilities and heritage that I just didn’t know the answers too. The next day he handed me a charm, that would keep me from permeating. It was a weird feeling to be restricted like that and I realized that I’d made an understandable but _fundamental_ mistake. I never tried to _control_ my abilities, I only ever tried to suppress them, because I didn’t have the basic understanding required to use them properly in the first place. When you’re a vampire or a werewolf or even a hybrid, you most likely have parents or sibling or an encyclopedia on your race, that tells you all the rules and conditions. If you’re an anomaly like us, you need to figure all those books worth in knowledge out all by yourself, so that is what I started doing.," Sugawara rolls his sleeve back down. “I made my own encyclopedia. I filled notebook after notebook with every single impression I had. I wrote down every material I had ever permeated trough, what they felt like and then I started practising with the ones I knew wouldn’t hurt me much if I’d mess up. I wrote down how I felt the weather or eating certain foods influence my radius. I started to gather all my knowledge and Daichi helped me with some trial and error, making sure I wouldn’t hurt myself by setting up wards and binding spells until I had enough information to establish basic rules for myself of what I could and could not do. It helped me to focus and be more confident in myself, because I felt like it gave me an identity. I wasn’t just some freaky anomaly anymore, that could make water bottles explode by sticking his hands into them. I can define myself now!”

“Can… can I have a charm that stops me from turning green?" Tadashi asks.

Sugawara chuckles. “You’ll have to ask Daichi that. But in my opinion, you don’t have to. Kuro wouldn’t be my first go-to choice, but I suppose he isn’t _completely_ useless, even if he constantly tries to prove the contrary. What you need are friends to complement you, Tadashi! Someone that can lighten the load until you have had the time to define yourself. Someone who can offer you a second opinion and spot things you are too used to, to notice. Someone who helps you to see your whole picture. In the end, no one can master your powers for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t let others help you. Like Akaashi - _he_ holds all the brain cells, so try to stick to him.”

 _“Oh…,"_ Tadashi sounds more disappointed than he should. Sure, that is good advice and he trusts Sugawara not to throw generic phrases at him. After all, the silver-haired seems all too familiar with his own state of mind and despair, but for a second he still hoped that his problems might quickly be fixed with a nice, easy, magic amulet.

“I know that it’s not the quick solution you want and need, but that solution does not exist, or at least I couldn’t find it and believe me, _I tried.,"_ Sugawara sighs empathetically. “All those fast options are just temporary relief. They can be good to give you enough time to breathe properly and come up with a permanent strategy, but you shouldn’t rely on them too much. Try not to be afraid and become more familiar with and positive towards your body. And write everything down, or draw it or make an audio recording - just preserve your thoughts and experiences somehow, so you can revisit and analyse them for reoccurring patterns or clues that can help you figure out how your gifts work or on a more basic level: _What they even are.”_

Tadashi takes a deep breath and nods with a sigh. That sounds like so much work, and he already has all these missed lectures… but… how much of that is actual concern over his studies and how much just another excuse not to confront himself and revisit his long history of neglecting any form of confidence.

He is about to thank Sugawara wholeheartedly when a spark pops up in his mind: “You said, you can feel energies, _right?_ That’s how you knocked out the dragon, _isn’t it?_ You manipulated his energies… could… could you do that with me too? Like, _feel around_ and tell me what is causing the colour?”

The silver-haired cringes visibly. “Please don’t be mad with me, I’d love to help you in _any_ other way, Tadashi, but as I said, I only stick myself into other people in emergencies… hold on, _that sounded way too sexual,_ I am so sorry!" and he buries his face in his hand. “You know what I meant! Anyway, there is a reason I don’t study medicine and it would be that the insides of living things are unbelievably disgusting! They’re wet and slimy and glibber and _urgh…,"_ he shudders with a grimace.

 _“Oh…_ well… _yeah,"_ Tadashi can’t argue with that. By now he has gotten used to the sight of his own exposed flesh and blood, but it’s still somewhat gross, that is true. 

A flicker of light catches his eyes and Sugawara looks up. The air between two shelves shimmers and ripples like someone dropped a stone into liquid copper. A second later, the man with the magnificent antlers appears trough the gateway. Even when he’s human, they still shine and gleam, polished to absolute, majestic perfection. Tadashi feels incredibly small and unworthy in that presence.

“Dai!" Sugawara smiles and the other walks over to them, running his fingers over the silver-haired’s shoulders.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt - I can take your books down for you already. I think Asahi is having a nervous breakdown. That new tengu kid he has to mentor can’t stop praising his designs and his confidence isn’t constructed for that many compliments," he says and Sugawara chuckles, then he looks at his books and gasps as if he’d entirely forgotten them.

Yamaguchi has to forcibly keep in an amused sigh. _Hinata..._

“Oh shit, _my essay!"_ Sugawara calls out, jumping to his feet. “Tadashi-Kun, I really need to work on this, I’m so sorry! Think about it, okay _umn…_ do you have something to write on?”

Tadashi nods and fumbles his notepad and a ballpen from his bag. Sugawara scribbles down something, but his friend intercepts both items, as he tries to hand them back and writes something of his own, before sliding them across the table.

A phone number and some odd word, Tadashi doesn’t know what to do with.

“For your antlers - _they’re chipping!_ You should take better care and polish them more often. It’ll hurt less when they shed if you’ve maintained them properly. That cream is pretty affordable and does the job nicely," this Daichi-man explains, then he looks him up and down and tacks on: “At that size, you should be able to do it alone, but in my experience, it is less of an acrobatic act and much more comfortable if someone else does it for you!”

And Tadashi notices how Sugawara’s hand brushes against his friend’s… or boyfriend’s, he assumes. He wonders if that is something intimate - polishing someone’s antlers. Just barely he resists the urge to touch his own, wondering if Tsukki would do that for him. Maybe Tadashi can make it sound like something medical… maybe...

“Thank you!" he stows the notepad away carefully, stands up and bows deeply.

“Don’t sweat it!" Daichi says.

“Yeah - and if you want to talk again or need my help, just text me, okay?" Sugawara smiles, picking up his books.

Tadashi nods and the silver-haired turns to his, yes, definitely boyfriend, and grins: “Race ya," before giving him a quick peck on the lips and falling through the floor without any further warning.

The antlered man exchanges a look with Tadashi and sighs, his expression absolutely smitten.

“Kuro’s waiting behind the building!" he informs him, before the air flickers copper again and he vanishes.

## ...

 _‘Behind the building’_ turns out to be the paper dumpsters and _‘waiting’_ ultimately translates into _‘laying in said dumpster, knocked out’._

After an initial scared moment in which his panicked brain tries to cope with the fact he just received antler-care advice from a murderer, Kuro lets out a grumble, turning out to be very much alive after all.

Tadashi tries every trick he knows. Pinching him in the cheek, pinching him in the hand, pinching him in the ribs. But Kuro does not wake up, not even when he pinches his nose. He is positively out cold - shit!

Tadashi walks up and down, running his hands through his hair, but there is no avoiding this.

“Yeah umn… Hinata, are you still with Bokuto, Akaashi and Kenma?” - “Oh good… good! Wait, Tsukki- I mean Tsukishima-San, too?” - “You know what, never mind, I umn… I need help," he admits weakly, before giving the tengu his location.

~~**///** ~~

“A _mindmap?"_ Kuro asks, slightly scandalized, then he winces, groans and lays his head back down on the arm-rest of Tsukishima’s sofa. _“The fuck?”_

“That was Sugawara’s suggestion… basically. He really needed to finish an essay and said I should do some brainstorming," Tadashi nods - _it’s not a lie,_ he reminds himself, but he sure as shit isn’t going to tell anyone about the rest of the half-ghost’s suggestion.

“Mindmap," Kuro just shakes his head, pulling an affronted grimace as if that was an insult to him personally.

 _“Here,"_ Tsukishima dumps a pack of frozen beans on his head and another on his belly. “You will buy me new ones and I am only doing this because Tadashi asked nicely, just so we are clear - if it were me, _I’d left you in that dumpster!”_

“Thanks for the flowers," Kuro deadpans, then he places the provisory cooling packs on his hip and the left side of his face so that they cover the two very prominent, hoove shaped bruises, only to sigh blissfully. “Fuck, that’s the good shit”

“Those are _beans,"_ Akaashi looks up from his magazine. “And it was kind of your fault!”

“Yeah bro - it was batshit brave but also batshit insane to make a move on Suga-San… _again,_ especially on Sawamura’s turf," Bokuto nods, patting his friend’s leg in solemn respect and deepest condolence.

“I didn’t make a move on him, for fuck’s sake and also that library is _public!"_ Kuro objects.

“Quit complaining," Tsukishima cuts him off. “He could have kicked you in the nuts, so be glad.”

The fire-pixie doesn’t answer that one and rather just groans something about a _‘bunch of disloyal traitors’_ and _‘should have stayed friends with the stupid satyr and the dumb fish’._

“I still don’t understand why you were chased off in the first place," Tadashi asks, sitting crosslegged on the floor. While Tsukishima’s apartment is much larger than his and actually has space enough, the vampire still doesn’t own enough chairs for all of them.

“Do you want to tell him or should we?" Akaashi asks.

“Does it _matter_ what I answer?" Kuro returns.

“You see, Tadashi-Kun," the witch closes his reading and sits a bit straighter. “Every year the uni holds a Yule ball and our sentient firecracker here somehow got the impression that it would be a wise course of action to get _way_ too drunk, pin Sugawara-San against a wall and try to make out with him.”

Tadashi gasps slightly. _‘Drama!’_

Hinata has himself a little less under control, letting out a loud: _“Uaaaaaaahhhh,"_ which earns him an annoyed glare from Tsukishima, who already seems to regret having allowed the tengu and his witchling attachment inside his flat.

“I apologised like _a hundred times,"_ Kuro defends himself.

“It was still not smart to fish in a pond so many leagues above your own," Kenma mumbles sleepily, having rolled up at the other end of the sofa, nestled between Kuro’s legs and bussy with his phone.

“You are aware that was a _savage_ self-burn, aren’t you?" the pixie blinks at his boyfriend.

 _“Wasn’t_ \- I _too_ am far above you, but you feed me, the sex is adequate and I am lazy, so I stay.”

“He’s right bro - your ugly ass really got _fucking lucky!"_ Bokuto scratches his chin thoughtfully.

“Hey!" Kuro snaps and sits upright with a wince. “I am injured, you should be on my side, you indigestible poultry!”

_Boom!_

Tadashi covers his face quickly before he can breathe in any feathers as an offended owl starts pecking on his best friends head and pull at his hair. Kuro curses loudly, trying to hit Bokuto with one of the bean packs, much to Tsukishima’s displease. The vampire’s eyebrows start twitching dangerously.

Akaashi makes a lax gesture and the feathers disappear. Then he snaps his fingers and a huge whiteboard materializes out of thin air.

“CBA of Duck-Mode," Kuro reads out loud, sitting up with a groan, holding Bokuto at an arm’s length.

_Boom!_

The entire room stares at the whiteboard.

On the left, it reads _‘Downside’_ and underneath that _‘DEPRESSED’_ in all caps. On the right, the headline is _‘Upside’,_ followed by the bullet points _‘Easy to carry in purse’_ and _‘Cute when floating in bathtub’,_ the later circled several times.

Akaashi’s ears turn bright pink and with a hasty wave of his hand and a slight _‘plop’,_ the board is wiped clean.

“Do you carry that with you all the time?" Tsukishima asks.

 _“Unimportant!"_ Akaashi doesn’t look him in the eye, as he jumps to his feet, pulls a hand full of markers from his bag and starts to write _‘Yamaguchi Tadashi’_ in the middle, circling it, adding _‘Mother: Human’_ and _‘Father: unknown’_ underneath. Next, he adds two more bubbles, labelled _‘Antlers (roe deer)’_ and _‘Tail (lion)’,_ before hesitating and adding a third named _‘Colour Spots (origin/purpose?)’._ Finally, he turns around and looks into the round, asking: “Anything else?”

“High regeneration rate," Tsukishima suggests the same moment that Hinata calls out: _“Tasty!”_

Tadashi pulls his head in. 

“Sorry," mutters the tengu, “but you really _do_ smell good!”

“Wait, you can heal yourself?”, Kageyama furrows his brows. “Like - actually?”

Tadashi nibbles at his lips, but eventually he shrugs and muffles: “Yeah umn… but it’s really nothing.”

“Define that!” Kuro squints at him with his good eye.

“Oh well, so _erm…_ yesterday I got hit by a car… _I think_ and _umn…_ today I’m fine again,” he squirms a bit, fidgeting with his fingers, suddenly immensely interested in his fingernails. He’s actually not quite sure. He remembers a very bright flash, followed by immediate agony but everything is much too fuzzy for him to know for sure.

“Excuse me, you got _what!?”,_ Kuro yelps. “Go… _go to a hospital!_ Jesus _fucking_ christ, _why_ were you at uni!?”

“It’s fine… _really,_ I’ve healed overnight”, Tadashi shakes his head. But that’s the point, isn’t it? Another thing he can’t sort out. He _does_ heal very fast, even by the standards of species who are supposed to self-heal, and he expected that the claw tears would be gone in the morning, _but everything else too?_ If he _really_ got hit by a car, then he should have been knocked out for at least a day. This… did heal _very_ fast… he screws his eyes shut and tries to concentrate but the only thing that comes to him is the picture of clear, pure golden orbs in the darkness, glowing like moons.

The entire room gapes at him, only Tsukishima is determined to count the fuzz on the dark-blue hem of his pullover and Hinata bounces on his heels with a strong nod, already familiar with Tadashi’s self-healing.

Akaashi catches himself first and moves to add another bubble with _‘Rich in energy’_ and two subsequent bullet points _‘Fast self-healing’_ and _‘tasty’._

Tadashi gulps.

“So, where should we start?" the witch asks.

“Are we aware of anything that has both antlers and a tail?" Kuro asks after shaking his head in disbelief one last time.

 _“Jackalope,"_ Kageyama suggests.

“That is a bunny!" Hinata rolls his eyes.

“Well, it’s got a tail and antlers, _hasn’t it?"_ the witchling snaps back.

Kuro shakes his head with a sigh. “So nothing?”

But Tadashi is only half-listening. He is staring at his reflection in the glass surface of Tsukishima’s couchside table, fingers twisting and rubbing his tail. 

_“Yamaguchi-San?"_ someone gently touches his shoulder and he flinches hard. The entire room seems to be staring at him and Akaashi blinks at him. “If you feel uncomfortable with this, we don’t have to analyze you!”

 _“No!"_ he hastily shakes his head. “I mean _yes,_ I mean no, I… mean... I’m fine with it, I _want_ to know, I just…," and he turns his eyes back at his own image, furrowing his brows before pulling out the piece of paper with Sugawara’s number on it. 

“What’s wrong?" Kuro’s one eye, that isn’t covered by a frozen bean pack or remnant feathers, glances over. _“Oh,_ you… you want to do this with Sugawara? I mean he’s technically the most qualified person for this, so it would make sense…”

“No!" Tadashi shakes his head again. “That’s not it. It’s just… Sawamura said something… do my antlers look weird to you?" and he turns to face the pixie.

 _“Nope_ \- regular antlers… bit _small_ maybe, if you compare them with Sawamura’s, but I guess that could be because of the specific deer breed they come from," Kuro shakes his head.

“Do they look… _sick_ to you? _Chipping?"_ Tadashi specifies his question.

“I’m not the medical expert," the other shrugs, reaching over the sofa, to prod Tsukishima in the hip.

The vampire squirms but eventually he leans forwards and gently grabs Tadashi’s antlers at the base, squinting at them hard. 

He tries not to breathe, tries to think about how close they are, about how the other’s slender fingers tickle his scalp, how the soft pressure relaxes him down to the last muscle.

“Do you see anything? _Let me!"_ and Tadashi is almost glad, that Hinata has the patience of a dayfly, pushing Tsukishima aside, to take a look of his own. If only he wouldn’t pull at his head so much.

 _“Ouch,_ Hinata!" he calls out.

 _“Sorry!"_ the tengu exclaims, before letting go. “They look like they’ve always looked," he asses.

“Why are you asking?" Akaashi looks interested.

“Oh umn… Sawamura said I should polish them more often. He said they were chipping and that I should take better care and he wrote down a cream for me, that he thinks is good. He said that if I used it, it would be less uncomfortable when I shed, but… I’ve _never_ shed my antlers before!" Tadashi explains, looking back down at the note in his hands, biting his lower lip. “I wasn’t even aware that is something that’s supposed to happen!”

 _“Hm…,"_ Kuro and Akaashi exchange a look. “Interesting," the later mumbles. “But you’d know if you were a phantom, wouldn’t you?" he thinks out loud, directed mostly at himself.

“I don’t know - _how…_ how could I find out?" Tadashi shrugs helplessly.

“They are there permanently? Even when you sleep?" Kuro asks.

“Yes!”

“Are you _sure?”_

“Yep!" Hinata comes to his aid. All heads turn to him. _“What?_ You sometimes dozed off on the train when we were still at Western. _Think the stress knocked you out cold._ And the antlers always stayed.”

The pixie nods and scratches his chin, while Tadashi sends silent prayers of thanks to every deity he knows. Whoever send him a guardian tengu, he will forever be thankful! He doesn’t even want to imagine what could have happened without Hinata hovering at his side, because Tadashi sure as shit doesn’t remember regularly passing out on the train!

“And have they always been there?”

“No, they started growing when I was nine, but it wasn’t really a surprise. People always said I have doe eyes so…," he breathes out.

“And the tail?”

“Umn… earlier, I think.”

Kuro and Akaashi exchange a look. 

“Nine is a bit late but still in the normal age-range for shapeshifters to start developing their second form.”

“Can you break them off?" Bokuto chimes up.

Tadashi winces. “Yes, but it only happened once so far.”

“And what happened?”

“I… I don’t really understand," Tadashi wrings his hands nervously.

“Does the broken piece stay or does it disappear?”

“It _umn…_ it stays.”

A collective groan.

 _“So no phantom,"_ Akaashi sighs and draws a column at the side of the whiteboard, which he labels ‘No’ and adds _‘Phantom’_ as the first species they have excluded.

“Hey, Kenma! Can I borrow your phone for a second?" Kuro leans forwards.

His boyfriend looks up with slitted eyes, not amused by the request.

_“Pretty please.”_

“Fine," the selkie growls and hands it over. 

“What are you doing?" Bokuto asks.

“Making up for your intellectual vacuum. We need more brainpower on this!" the pixie snickers while typing a message.

 _“Hey!"_ Bokuto calls out. “I can be very somisticated!”

 _“Sophisticated,_ Bokuto-San!" Akaashi corrects him.

“Doesn’t matter!" the shapeshifter cries out. “I have it figured out anyway!”

 _“Uaaaaahhhh,"_ Hinata beams. “Bokuto-San, you are amazing!”

“Yeah… _right,"_ Kuro snorts. “Enlighten us then!”

“Tadashi-Kun!" Bokuto rises to his feet, hands proudly on his hips. “Through brilliant de…," he pauses, his face screwed up is concentration, “...duction - _hah!_ \- I have concluded that you are a mushroom!”

For a moment there is utter silence, then Kuro lets out a bellowing: _“Ha!"_ and falls off the sofa. Tsukishima snorts into his shoulder, biting his lip hard to stifle the laughter.

 _“You tried,_ Kotarou!" Akaashi gently runs his hand through his boyfriend’s hair, unusually intimate. “And that was a very nice use of _‘deduction’.”_

“But he _is!"_ Bokuro exclaims, counting down hin his fingers. “He’s juicy and great food, but nobody wants to eat something that has lilac or orange splotches. He’s a good mushroom, imitating a venomous one!”

“You mean _poisonous,"_ Tsukishima corrects him. 

“Bokuto-San, you are so smart!" Hinata nods. “That could _totally_ be true!”. 

Kageyama still looks sceptic, but he is pressing his lips into a paper-thin line of tremendous contemplation.

“Thank all heavens I called for help," Kuro mumbles, shaking his head, only to wince and readjust his provisory cooling pack. “He’s not a mushroom! That isn’t even a species!”

“Could be a weird kind of floral spirit," Kenma points out.

Tadashi doesn’t like this. He really doesn’t want to be a mushroom spirit! “But mushrooms don’t have antlers! _Or tails!"_ he wrings his hands around said tail.

“If you’re mother his human, then your genetics are hitting after your father. If he was a… let’s say floral spirit and shapeshifter hybrid, we could check off all the boxes," Akaashi taps one of his markers against his chin, while Bokuto beams proudly, sticking his tongue out at Kuro.

Tadashi let’s out a little whimper. _‘Mushroom spirit’,_ if he had known he’d come out of this even more pathetic than before, he’d gladly continued his life in miserable uncertainty!

“He’s _not_ a floral spirit!" Tsukishima snaps.

“Why are you so sure?" Hinata crossed his arms over his chest in challenge.

“Because I would have ta- _smelled_ that!" the blond barks back, an inexplicable shade of pink trickling into his ears.

But Tadashi is rather certain he was about to say _‘tasted’,_ and suddenly a faint memory reminds him of last night. Of someone by his side, talking to him, taking away the pain. His hand finds its way to his neck. There is nothing there, and yet… something keeps him from dismissing the dizzy picture of golden eyes in the dark as a mere fever dream.

He notices Tsukishima tense and pointedly look away from him. Tadashi turns his eyes back to the whiteboard, trying to focus on that instead.

“Okay, new suggestion: _BuzzFeed quizzes!"_ Kuro declares.

“Already did them," Tadashi shakes his head.

_“All of them?”_

“All of them!”

_“Shit!”_

“I’d like to go back to the colour changing thing!" Akaashi looks at Tadashi. “I think Bokuto, if only by coincidence, might have stumbled over something.”

 _“Hah!"_ Bokuto crosses his arms over his chest in triumph.

“You’re _kidding,_ aren’t you?" Kuro raises an eyebrow.

“I mean, what _is_ the purpose of it!?" the witch taps his marker against the whiteboard. “Defensive mechanism does seem like a valid possibility.”

“If it _is,_ it ain’t working," Tadashi grits out dryly. “It’s just making me nervous and clumsy and easy to catch!”

“Maybe your insecurity is getting in the way of unfolding the full potential. You only ever try to make it go away, don’t you? But have you tried to provoke it yet?" Akaashi asks.

He opens his mouth to object, then he realizes that is exactly the same thing Sugawara said. He overcame his problems by experimenting and trying out how far he could go.

“No," he shakes his head. “I haven’t!”

“Then let’s try if you can - Kuro, scoot over, Tsukishima-San, sit down!" and he starts ushering the pixie to the far end of the sofa. Kenma looks rather displeased when he has to get up and resettle in his boyfriend’s lap.

Tadashi is turning red, but not because of his powers.

“I want you to turn the same colour as Tsukishima’s pullover!" Akaashi instructs him. “The rest - be quiet or I will turn you into microwaves!”

 _“Uahhh,_ cool!" Hinata’s eyes brighten up.

“Shut up!" Kageyama hisses, a lot less keen on being transformed into a kitchen utensil.

“But Kageyama, that means Ennoshita will never be angry at us again when we forget to clean the microwave because we’ll have our own and we can take it everywhere! Then we can always make instant ramen!”

 _“You_ will _be_ that microwave, you won’t be able to eat any ramen anymore, Boke!” 

_“Arghhh,_ you’re right, _damn it!”_

And Tadashi can hear the tengu tear at his hair. A little grin turns the corners of his mouth and he takes a deep breath, focussing his eyes on the midnight blue hem of Tsukishima’s pullover.

The room turns quiet and everyone is looking at him. Even the silent jingles of Kenma’s game have died down. Tadashi gulps nervously.

 _‘Blue… blue… turn blue…’_ he thinks, squinting at the fabric so hard, he starts to get dizzy. _‘Turn blue… Turn. Blue…’_

Eyes rest on him, people breathe and every molecule of dust settling on the floor echoes like thunder. The drumming of blood in his ears is deafening.

Nothing happens. He can’t do this, _he can’t,_ he is useless!

 _“Blue,_ Tadashi-San!" Akaashi mumbles. “Not green - try to focus.”

“What?" he stares at his hands. They are still colourless. Frantically Tadashi starts to pat his body down. _“Where?"_ he peers down his cleavage, breath hitching in his throat. He feels like throwing up. Where is it, he can’t see it!

“In your neck!" Tsukishima grabs his wildly flapping hands with a huff. Tadashi’s head snaps up, knowing he can’t possibly catch a glimpse of his own neck, but determined to try still. But the vampire puts his other hand on his scalp, keeping his eyes down and their gazes from meeting. “Just focus on me," he mumbles, more quietly. “The rest of the stinkbugs don’t matter. _No offence,_ Akaashi-San, Kenma-San.”

 _“None taken,"_ the witch shrugs and Tadashi can hear how he retreats, settling somewhere, probably in Bokuto’s lap, judging by the happy, hooting noise.

“If they are _‘the rest’,_ does that mean you’re a stinkbug too?" Tadashi asks.

 _“Shut up,_ Yamaguchi!”

 _“Sorry,_ Tsukki.”

But the vampire doesn’t pull his hand away. One is still holding on to Tadashi’s and the other rests on his head, fingers once again running along the bases of his alters. The vampire’s body is cold and his lazy pulse slowly pumps through his fingers. Tadashi closes his eyes, tries to focus on that. On the cool sensation, the slow, calming rhythm. He feels his body shudder and relax and the tingles that run down from hin antlers make him giggle.

 _“What?"_ Tsukishima asks.

“Nothing," Tadashi tries not to laugh. “I just… I think my antlers are ticklish.”

He can feel the vampire frown and tense.

 _“What?"_ now it’s his turn to ask.

The hand holding his twitches and grabs him a bit tighter. “I’m sorry," Tsukishima mutters. “They… they _do_ seem chipped. I should have noticed sooner how battered they are.”

Tadashi doesn’t know what to reply.

“And now _kiss,"_ Kuro whispers breathlessly.

They flinch apart.

 _“Kuro!"_ Akaashi throws his marker at him.

“You blew it.," Kenma deadpans.

“I’m sorry!" the pixie wails. 

Hinata and Kageyama look at them, deeply fascinated.

“At least we got all the way to the elbows," Akaashi massages the bridge of his nose.

Tadashi dares to glance down. The skin of his hands and his lower arms has turned a rich, dark brown with subtle marmoration in a lighter shade of the same colour. He furrows his brows. Wasn’t he supposed to go blue?

Kageyama seems to have noticed too because he wrinkles his nose and crooks his head. “I thought he was supposed to concentrate on the pullover and not on the sofa!?”

Tadashi glances even further down. And the witchling turns out to be right. He is a whole distance away from the deep blue of Tsukishima’s clothes, but he has performed a near-perfect imitation of the leather he is sitting on.

“The hell?" Kuro squints and moves in closer to stare at Tadashi’s hands, but just as he does, the colour frizzles, as if tiny explosions are going off under his skin and tiny green and orange dabbers appear before the pigmentation fades altogether, eventhough Tadashi tried to concentrate on the colour with all his might. “What just happened?" the pixie asks into the round.

“You broke him," Akaashi suggests dryly.

“I already said I was sorry!" Kuro whines. “If I could turn back time, I would!”

Turn back time… Tsukishima and Tadashi look at each other, the same idea blooming in their heads.

“I’ll check if she’s home!" the vampire declares, jumps to his feet and strides away.

“What?" Bokuto crooks his head to the side.

“Oh umn… I think we have an idea," Tadashi explains hastily over the sound of Tsukishima leaving and his footsteps fading down the hallway.

“This is more frustrating than I thought. Are you sure your antler’s don’t just disappear once they are detached from your body?" Akaashi narrows his eyes at him. “Let’s try to be certain - Bokuto, grab him!”

“No!" Tadashi yips as the shapeshifter cracks his knuckles. “I’m certain!" he cries out, instinctively pressing himself as deeply into the sofa as possible.

“Meow!?”

“Leave the poor boy alone, for Pete’s sake, you are doing it all wrong! Thank the heavens I was with Suga when you texted me - we had a bad feeling and he made me a list of instructions which does not include mutilating him!”

The entire room freezes and one after the other they turn towards the tiny man with sand-coloured hair, entering trough the ajar door, a long-legged, silvery cat on his shoulders.

“Hey, Yakku-," Kuro doesn’t get to finish.

With another “Meow," the cat leaps at him, landing on his face, prompting Kenma to jump up and hiss furiously.

“Lev, get back here!" the man shouts, but the cat has already taken flight from the lashing selkie protecting his territory slash boyfriend and -

_Boom!_

“Quak” - “Meow”

It turns its large, vibrantly green eyes at Bokuto, who flinches, startled, transforms and not half a second later, a gleeful cat is chasing a panicked duck through the apartment.

“Why did you bring Lev?" Kuro calls over the noise.

“He’s my familiar, you piece of shit, he’s always with me!" the small man yells back. “Why didn’t you tell me that Bokuto was here, I would have taken him on a leash!?”

“Oh, so now it’s my job to keep your shitty familiar under control!?”

“Shut up you useless matchstick man and catch your idiot friend of a duck!”

“I’m a bit preoccupied!" Kuro barks back, doing his best to keep a struggling and furiously hissing Kenma from chasing after the cat.

Yamaguchi doesn’t catch the small man’s reply, as he has to throw himself onto the ground when the duck comes swooshing over the backrest, quickly followed by a flash of silver and - whoosh - an orange and black flurry.

“Leave Bokuto-Senpai alone!”

“Boke!" Kageyama calls out, jumping over the sofa too, but he’s too slow to catch the loose tengu, trying to defend the duck from the cat.

“Quaaaak," Bokuto manages to dive into Akaashi’s arms who stretches out his hand.

_Wham!_

The cat hits the invisible barrier with a thud.

_Boom!_

It explodes into a cloud of silver hair.

_Whoosh!_

Hinata reacts a second to latte and slams into the barrier too.

 _“Ouch!"_ an unfamiliar voice from somewhere close to Tadashi complains. “Barriers are unfair!”

He coughs through the odd mixture of duck and tengu feathers and cat hair tickling in his nose, throat, eyes and, long things short, everywhere. _“Achoo!”_

“Thank you, Akaashi-San!" Yaku gasps breathlessly and Tadashi can hear footsteps move towards him. Then the air pops with magic and the excess skin disappears, giving him a clear view of the small man bending down and grabbing something off the floor.

“You are welcome," Akaashi replies.

 _“Ow!_ That hurts!" and now Tadashi can see who the new voice belongs too. An obscenely tall man with green eyes, big as headlights and light-grey hair. He has to bend over in a very crooked angle because Yaku is pulling him up by his hear, expression furious.

“Behave yourself for once!" he yells.

“But the duck mode is funny!" the grey-haired complains, seeing no fault what so ever on his part.

Carefully Tadashi decides to label the situation as save enough to stand back up. _“Achoo!"_ the fur and feathers are gone but the tingle still remains in his nose.

 _“Oi,_ Hinata!" Kageyama grabs something from the floor. But instead of a cat-shapeshifter, he holds up a dizzy tengu, much to the cat-shapeshifter’s amusement.

“Bird!" he chirps, wiggles himself free and snatches the tengu from the witchling. “Tiny bird.”

Hinata snarls, his feathers fluff up and his feet kick the shapeshifter in the chest so hard, he falls back over with a surprised jowl.

“I am not tiny!" he yells offended, flapping his wings and settling on Kageyama’s shoulder, who sways dangerously under the weight. Tadashi hastily takes a step to the side to avoid being crushed in case they fall over.

 _“Wow!"_ the cat sits back up, rubbing at his chest. “That was super strong!”

Hinata fluffs himself up even more in response, though Tadashi thinks that this time he can spot a bit of pride in it. Kageyama’s head disappears in the black feathers and he starts swatting at the tengu, growling: “Get _off_ of me, Boke! You can’t sit on me indoors!”

The orange-haired hops off his shoulder and onto the spot on the sofa that Tadashi has vacated, keeping a wary eye on the cat.

“What in tarnation’s name is going on here?" Tsukishima’s voice roars from the entrance. “Can you not leave your own apartment for ten seconds without any of you people trying to demolish it!?”

Tadashi can spot Yachi peaking from behind his back, face pale and nervous and he gives her an encouraging little wave.

“The door was open, so I let myself in. I am sor-," Yaku is halfway through a bow, when the cat-shapeshifter jumps to his feet, exclaiming with an excited wave: “Tsukishima, hello!”

It seems like this distraction is exactly what the sulking duck in Akaashi’s lap has waited for.

_Boom!_

For a split second, there is the vague shape of human Bokuto, then another - _Boom!_ \- and the mighty owl, razor-sharp talons outstretched, goes straight for the light-haired shapeshifter.

_Boom!_

A _“Meow!”_ full of radiant distress and the chaos begins anew.

“Bokuto!" Akaashi cries out. _“No!”_

The cat jumps onto the table, looking for someone to protect it, but finds itself short in options.

Akaashi caused its last downfall, Kuro still has a territorial selkie in his lap, Hinata seems like he would like to join the revenge as well, Kageyama is too far away, Tsukishima has gone purple with suppressed annoyance and Yaku’s eyebrow twitches dangerously, clearly saying _‘Don’t count on my help - You provoked him, so now deal with the angry owl yourself!’_ which leaves only Tadashi available.

Both he and the cat realize this at the very same moment and the animal lunges for the safety of his chest.

Time suddenly seems to move very slow. 

Tadashi blinks. 

He can see the outstretched paws of the silvery cat and the gleaming, zygodactyl claws of the owl, closing around the tip of its tail. 

The collision is imminent. 

The collision is unavoidable.

Tsukishima opens his mouth to yell something. 

Yaku jumps to intercept the animals. He will be too late.

Tadashi can’t cower down, he is trapped between the couchside table and the sofa itself. He can’t throw himself to the left unless he wants to smash into the whiteboard. He can’t go right either, because he will land directly on Hinata.

He blinks.

Any second now.

Any second he will be bowled over by a panicked cat and a furious owl, probably break his skull against the wall and die a long, painful death.

This is not how he wants things to end!

He can live with being eaten by something much bigger and much stronger than him. Or with drowning himself in his sink after confessing to Tsukishima!

But he can’t cope with whatever all of this is! He can’t die a pining mess and he certainly can’t die as a _‘mushroom spirit’!_

_Boom!_

His stomach lurches and the floor vanishes from under this feet. What was that? _Who_ was that? The world spins, turns upside down and for a short moment, Tadashi wonders why dying is like an LSD fever dream, as his vision twists, his perspective distorts and the colours go crazy.

Then he hits something hard and all air is pressed from his tiny lungs as he lets out a breathless, pathetic little squeak.

There are noises, so many unfamiliar noises all around him. Whooshing and scratching and shuffling. He tries to scramble back up, seek cover somewhere but a shadow falls on him.

Something large and silver hovers above him and a paw prods at him, rolling his tiny, helpless body over unto the back, exposing his belly.

Tadashi can’t breathe, his eyes zero in on the lamp-like, green eyes and the little string of salvia that falls from gleaming fangs.

_Death is near!_

His limps go rigid and he stops moving, stops even the little breathing he can manage. 

_“Meow?”_

The paw prods at him again, to check why the food has stopped wriggling.

 _“Shoo!"_ a foot comes into view, kicking the cat away and hands snatch him up, cradling him carefully and a huge brown eye looks at him in concern. “Is that supposed to happen?”

“Tadashi!" other hands seize him. They are warm… almost unbearably warm after the cold floor. “Come on buddy, do something! Oh no, _no no,_ he’s turned brown, that is bad, right? Look at what you’ve done, your familiar murdered our new friend!" a voice exclaims frantically and a finger pokes him in the belly.

Warm… Tadashi feels his heartbeat pick up again and he starts to wiggle, trying to roll himself back onto his feet.

“Give him to me!" a third voice chirps in anger and once again his body is seized. “He was my friend first and I never made him turn brown! You people are horrible!" it yells, the hand squeezing him tightly. “It’s okay now, Yamaguchi! _I’ll protect you!”_

“Oh dear heavens, Yamaguchi-San!" this one sounds higher than the rest, but Tadashi is still focused on wriggling himself free.

“Boke, you are crushing him!" another voice.

_Boom!_

“What’s happening, is he dying?”

“I think he’s still moving, Bokuto-San.”

It certainly feels like he is dying though and Tadashi has to say: _Death is weird!_ For once it takes a lot longer than he thought it would and also he still doesn’t understand why his body won’t quite do what he want’s it to do and why everything is still upside down and -

 _“Enough!"_ someone hisses with venom. “Hand him over, you uncivilized crétins!" and yet another hand grabs his flailing body, this one much more careful, placing him back upright on his stumpy legs and cradling him in one, cool, smooth palm.

Tadashi feels himself relax, his tiny heart pumps slower and he allows himself to curl his tail up against his back, blinking a few times, smacking his lips. 

His mouth tastes weird.

His whole body feels weird. Much too small for starters.

And he still hasn’t figured out where up and where down is. Only the cold hand on which he rests his weary body gives him some kind of orientation. Slowly he feels the urge to grip something and clamps his hands around the middle finger.

A quiet chuckle runs through the air and another finger brushes down his spine. He smoothes himself deeper into the palm, as if he was melting, the cool sensation easing his mind and his pulse.

“Hey, he’s turning green again!" someone exclaims in relief.

Tadashi blinks. The left side of his vision still seems oddly stretched in comparison to the right and in general everything is blown way out of proportions, as if he was looking through a very big, not entirely round, glass orb.

The finger runs down his spine again and he shudders in content.

“Now he’s getting orange… is that good?”

“Wait, _let me google.”_

And as he tries to focus on the origins of the voices he spots a fleshy blob with something dark and spiky on top next to a smaller blob with a sandy peak. Kuro and Yaku.

“Contrary to popular belief, the chameleon’s colour changing ability is not primarily meant for camouflage but rather a tool to communicate with its fellows. Bright colours can indicate a willingness to mate - hey Tsukki, I think you’re hitting all the right places!”

“Shut up!" a voice, very close to Tadashi growls and the finger caressing his spine stutters in its movement. So Tsukki is the one holding him. It feels nice… _feels calm._

“Wow, that’s so cool! You’re a lizard! Maybe you’re related to a dragon!?" an excited voice, that is unmistakably Hinata’s exclaims.

“Are you too short to see him properly? He’s clearly gecko!" another figure that is vaguely Kageyama-shaped huffs out with a dismissive gesture.

“Did you not just hear me say _‘chameleon’_ five seconds ago?" Kuro asks.

“But aren’t chameleons the same as lizards?" Hinata asks.

“You’re so stupid! It’s totally easy: All lizards are chameleons but not all chameleons are lizards! It’s the same as with the squares and the triangles, Boke!”

“How on earth did you two pass your entrance examination!?" Tsukishima mutters in radiant disbelief and Tadashi releases a little, amused puff of air, closing his eyes in relaxation. 

He can feel every single one of the vampires slow heartbeats vibrate through his body and in combination with the cold of his skin it has him blissed out like you would not believe.

“Meow?”

“No Lev, you can’t eat him and If you pull one more stunt, I swear to all gods, I will turn you into a pair new mittens for Kenma!" Yaku snaps.

“Is he alright?" Yachi. She sounds concerned.

Tadashi lifts his head, to tell her that yes, he is very alright, but only a little burping sound escapes his mouth. That is odd. He tries again.

“I think we should show him. He looks confused to me," a new blob moves closer and once Tadashi’s batshit crazy eyes have zeroed in on it, he is graced with the picture of Akaashi Keiji in greater detail than any mind is able to handle. 

“You’re right!" Tsukishima mumbles, then he starts walking the few steps over to the sofa. Tadashi sways gently on his palm, tightening his grip on the finger below him.

Carefully the vampire sits down and sets Tadashi down on his thigh. He blinks sluggishly, unrolling his tail in the new space at his disposal, to compensate for the loss of his perch, his tiny paws flexing irritatedly around nothing.

“I think he got too relaxed. Chameleons are cold-blooded, aren’t they? You knocked him out - let me try something," Kuro drops down next to them and moments later, hands are gently forming a dome over his body, warmth radiating from them with a hypnotising red glow.

Tadashi blinks faster, perking his head up.

Something is very, very wrong with this scene! He should not be able to fit under two palms, even if Kuro as absurdly big hands.

“There you go - little energy boost!" the pixie snickers, mimicking Tsukishima’s earlier motion by running a warm finger down his back.

Tadashi shudders and his tail stretches out, his vision focuses on his imminent surroundings and he lets out another gulping noise.

“Here’s a mirror," Yachi appears in front of them, kneeling down so that she is at eye-level with Tadashi, looking at him with inexplicable marvel.

“Good news, Tadashi-San: We know what you are," Akaashi reaches over and runs a finger down his back too.

“Bad news: We are all stupid!" Kuro sighs.

“Speak for yourself!" Yaku huffs somewhere behind them.

“Just don’t freak out, alright! The first time is always a bit rough, so remember that you got this under control!" Bokuto nods firmly.

Tadashi gulps nervously. It would help a lot if they’d tell him what he is supposed to have under control because right now he feels absolutely helpless. And it does not help, that ever time he tries to speak, he produces nothing but hoarse noises.

Then Yachi holds up the mirror and Tadashi looks at something tiny, green, scaly and weird. He turns his head to look for support. The green thing turns its head too. Tadashi freezes and then, very slowly, very carefully he stretches out one of his stumpy legs and takes in the odd paw-like thing that should be his hand.

His heart is beating so hard, it is shaking his whole, tiny, green, scaly and weird body.

“You’ve had us good, you slippery little bastard!" Kuro teases him with a finger. “Giving yourself some random animal parts without knowing!”

“Leave him alone!" Tsukishima swats his hand away.

“You’re a chameleon shapeshifter!" Akaashi declares.

Tadashi croaks.

This does not seem like an improvement over _‘mushroom spirit’!_

“And you’re pretty amazing!" Tsukishima mumbles, returning to scraping his fingernail over Tadashi’s hump.

 _‘Okay… maybe this is a bit of an improvement,’_ he thinks as he closes his eyes and relishes the sensation.

“And how is he going to transform back?" Hinata asks.

 _‘Shit!’_ Tadashi’s eyes fly wide open.

“Great, now _you_ made him turn brown, shrimpy!" Kuro deadpans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for staying with me till the end!  
> I truly hope you enjoyed this story (I tried to move away from the characters I usually write, so I hope you can forgive the slight lack in quality u.u'')
> 
> Special thanks go out to the Moderators of this event for organizing everything so neatly and to my partner, DazzleTwig (@ [Twitter](https://twitter.com/DazzleTwig) & @ [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/dazzletwig/)) who made the amazing art that goes along with this story! Please give them a follow and lots of likes!
> 
> If you'd like to support me, you can find me on various platforms ([LinkTree](https://linktr.ee/charlylee)). For writing I am most active on Tumblr though (@ [charlythelee](https://charlythelee.tumblr.com)).  
> If you'd like to promote this story in particular, you can reblog [this post right here](https://charlythelee.tumblr.com/post/639031780880596992/hqufbbtsukkiyamauniversityau) \- you'd do me a huge favour!
> 
> That was it so far and once again thank you for reading! Feel free to drop any critique/advise/thoughts in the comments!


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